Innovating the Future of Medical Meetings at Pharma Forum 2024

Introduction

At the end of March, Event Cadence made its first appearance at Pharma Forum, the premier gathering for meeting and event professionals in the life sciences industry. Held in Tampa, this event offered a dynamic space for our team to engage with industry leaders, discuss emerging trends, and showcase our innovative solutions. We wanted to provide a glimpse into our experience and the insights we took away from this amazing event!

Plan With People Who Care: Our Booth Design Theme

The message behind our booth design, “Does your medical congress platform take the time to listen? Plan with real people who care,” struck a chord with attendees. Unlike many other software platforms out there, Event Cadence stands out for our personal touch and genuine concern for our customers. What’s more, our ability to develop proprietary software internally means we can pivot quickly and implement niche feature improvements to better serve their needs. It’s this unique blend of empathy and agility that sets us apart in the industry.

Streamlining Meetings: The Appointment Scheduling Feature

Appointment scheduling at medical congresses is often a logistical challenge, especially when dealing with busy stakeholders and multiple team members. Our platform streamlines this process, offering unprecedented visibility, collaboration, and communication for all engagements. Attendees were impressed when we showed them how easy it was to schedule meetings in our platform. And these meetings can even store important and relevant data. Plus, with built-in reporting and analytics, planners can easily track ROI.

Insightful Sessions: Key Takeaways

Throughout the event, we had the opportunity to attend insightful sessions that shed light on the evolving landscape of medical meetings. Read on to see takeaways from the team: Hailey Ingraham, Director of Marketing, Arielle Smith, VP of Growth, and Sarah Shaddock, VP Product – Pharma.

10 Ways to Have Better Conversations emphasized the importance of effective communication in a post-pandemic world. The speaker, Celeste Headlee, highlighted strategies for improving listening skills and fostering human connections, essential elements for successful meetings and events.

Our favorite takeaways:

• Hailey’s takeaway: “Rather than focusing on crafting your response while someone else is speaking, make a conscious effort to truly listen.”

• Arielle’s takeaway: “We cannot multi-task as humans, no matter how much we want to believe that we can! In today’s virtual world, close your browsers and other platforms while on video conferencing calls to help your brain focus on the task at hand – communicating!”

• Sarah’s takeaway: “Take the time to L I S T E N. When you fully immerse yourself into listening to the conversation rather than predicting the conversation, you are able to show up genuinely and with patience when it comes time to respond (or not respond at all). “

How your brain looks after back-to-back meetings.

The Impact of AI on the Future of Meetings and Events Functions Another session delved into the impact of AI on the future of meetings and events functions. With AI rapidly reshaping industries, including life sciences and event planning, understanding its implications is essential said speaker, Steve Marley.

Our favorite takeaways:

• Hailey’s takeaway: “AI won’t replace meeting professionals — but meeting professionals with AI will replace meeting professionals without AI.”

• Arielle’s takeaway: Being that we’re also a software company, the technology adoption curve discussion resonated with us. We love our “early adopters”, as many become our “super users”. But that chasm is difficult to get over, as the curve notes. Thinking about how much gratitude and respect we have for our platform’s Early Adopters, and the great ideas that come from them, I’m more motivated to jump on the AI Early Adopters bandwagon.

• Sarah’s takeaway: “AI is a tool that will only improve the process if you allow it to. Study, learn and play around with AI as it isn’t going anywhere, any time soon.”

Meeting professionals with AI will replace meeting professionals without AI.

Looking Ahead: Future Opportunities

As our first time attending Pharma Forum, we were energized by the connections made and insights gained. The opportunity to collaborate with industry professionals, exchange ideas, and showcase our platform reaffirmed our commitment to driving innovation in medical meetings. Looking ahead, we are excited to continue our journey and explore new possibilities at Pharma Forum 2025 in Boston.

Conclusion

Our debut at Pharma Forum 2024 was a resounding success, thanks to the enthusiasm and engagement of attendees. As we reflect on this experience, we are inspired to further enhance our platform and empower meeting professionals to navigate the future with confidence and creativity. Pharma Forum serves as a catalyst for innovation and collaboration, and we are honored to be part of this transformative journey!

Event Cadence

Does your event platform take the time to listen? With Event Cadence, you plan with REAL people who care. Our platform was built for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry to be an all-in-one solution for organizational alignment.

With our features, your organization will have full visibility into every meeting, streamlined scheduling with room availability, access to preparative materials, prioritized sessions, actionable insights, and more. And our expert customer success team is there to help you every step of the way. Want to learn more? Let’s connect!