A New Medical Events Series Aims to Deliver Education Faster Than Associations Can

Author: David McMillin       

From breakthroughs in medical research to new legislation that impacts patient care, the health-care industry is constantly changing. For traditional meetings organized by member-based medical organizations, keeping up with those changes can prove to be challenging. “The current structure of associations may sometimes delay addressing hot and new topics,” Iftah Amit, vice president of global sales and marketing at Kenes Group, a global professional conference organizing company, told PCMA. “Like corporate events, which anticipate swiftly addressing challenges in the field, potential attendees are looking for formats where they can exchange ideas on new topics.”

To speed up the process of delivering insights, Kenes Group has partnered with the BestCities Global Alliance to launch its first-ever original event: the Summit on Controversies in Precision Medicine (CPMed). The program will welcome approximately 100 attendees to Berlin, a BestCities member, from Nov. 13–15. Amit said that this event, and others to follow, will cover “topics in the life-science segment that are not sufficiently addressed to date.”

This inaugural event covers a tough question: Where does the industry stand in drug development? With new regulations impacting the relationships between pharmaceutical companies and patient-care professionals, finding that answer isn’t easy. However, the summit’s program includes a number of debates on the pressing issues and the event website states that its focus is “to present the two sides of the same coin and spark the conversation between industry, academia, and policy makers.”

Amit said that Kenes and BestCities worked with a five-member scientific advisory board — who provided perspectives from drug development and academic research — to curate the agenda for CPMed, and he believes that events like CPMed can act as an incubator for the future of the attendee experience. “These events,” he said, “are a great platform to experiment with new formats and meeting designs.”

Kenes and the 12 destinations in BestCities will use CPMed to shape a busy calendar of additional programming. “This is an ongoing project,” Amit said. “We are looking into developing two or three new brands for 2018. In 2019, we expect to have over 15 original event meetings.”

How else might medical meetings change besides this new partnership? Check out the Convene cover story from April for a glimpse of the future of health-care education.

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