They say that as one door closes another one opens. Today sees me closing the door on the 2017 European Federation for Exploratory Medicines Development (EUFEMED) meeting with the publication of the conference proceedings that you can find here. With the 2019 EUFEMED meeting being held in Lyon I can breathe a sigh of relief as it will be the responsibility of the French arm of our collaborative group (Club Phase 1).

As part of the Association for Human Pharmacology in the Pharmaceutical Industry (AHPPI) committee, the host country for the meeting, planning (for me) began in the summer of 2016. Organizing a conference can be a logistical nightmare. Picking a site, finding hotels, managing payments, inviting speakers, scheduling sessions (including those all important coffee breaks)…. and speaking of coffee breaks, do I need to buy coffee? Oh, and food. What about a banquet? How are the rooms going to be set up? Should I publish proceedings from the conference? When you already have a full-time job the burden of the responsibility begins to mount very quickly.

Just typing that list again reminds me of the challenges we faced made and the stresses of delivering a first-class conference. If the conference is still months away and you’re already considering therapy, don’t worry. We have shown that it is possible to deliver an exciting, relevant and well-attended conference during this period of austerity, even in an over-priced city like London. Here are some tips from my own experience.

Before the meeting

Delegate, delegate, delegate! This is easily the number one rule for all aspects of conference planning. If you have a budget, hire a professional and experienced event management company. We appointed the Conference Collective to support us in 2017 and we developed a brilliant partnership. How you select your company is a discipline in itself and will need to be the subject of another post. We were very fortunate in finding a partner who helped us deliver EUFEMED 2017 on budget and with the least possible stress. If you don't have a budget - designate someone to answer emails and respond to problems with payments, roommates, etc. Assign someone else to help with the financial side. And don’t forget to reach out to students – something we failed to consider for EUFEMED 2017. It can be a great learning experience for them. Above all, if you try to do it all yourself, you will quickly become buried in logistics and minutiae rather than focusing your energy where it should: planning an amazing meeting for your participants.

Check with your institution to see if they have an office that helps with conference organizing. They may already have a web-based system for collecting registration fees that you can link to your conference website. Double check on any fees you may have to pay to use this service. It’s also very important to consider VAT implications. This can add another 20% or more to your registration fees and of course all of your supplier costs will also include a VAT element. Make sure the information on your website database is easily accessible to you (e.g., how simple is it to retrieve a list of participants or abstracts?). At the time of organising our 2017 conference we were also redesigning the EUFEMED website – not the best timing.

It is essential to start an expense/income spreadsheet to capture everything you’ll be responsible for paying and every source of income during the planning phase. This will prevent unpleasant surprises down the road. Be sure to select a city/conference centre/hotel that not only satisfies the needs for your meeting and fits your budget but is also easily accessible. We had little choice in having to chose London but without the expert knowledge of our events management team at the Conference Collective it would have taken us three times longer to find the perfect venue.

When deciding on the venue perform site visits. Check the location in advance to make sure you have enough room for your registration desk, general session, poster room, etc. Make sure the layout works, e.g., do you need chairs and tables, can everybody see the screen, do you need two screens. Check that there is reasonable access to electrical outlets. Does the venue provide AV as part of their package, or do you need to hire in a specialist AV company – this is what we did for EUFEMED 2017.

Develop a sponsorship plan that details specific sponsorship opportunities and potential sponsors. Treat your sponsors as partners and make sure that they can see the benefits of supporting your meeting – they need to consider the return they get on their investment in your event.

Registration

Be strict with your registration deadlines. This will save you many headaches later on. Clearly state your cancellation policy for the registration fee and hotel. Make sure that attendants are aware of local travel requirements. Carefully consider your registration fee strategy. Introducing concessions can be a logistical nightmare and will mess up your budget calculations (e.g., I will not attend the sessions on Tuesday, do I still have to pay the full fee?). So only plan to offer concessions if you have the manpower to manage the process and the queries it will generate. Ideally, keep the schedule simple so that it’s clear for everyone what they are getting for their fee. You should state what the fee includes – for EUFEMED our fee included full attendance at the conference, refreshments and lunch each day, a welcome reception at the venue, access to the exhibition and poster displays, a delegate pack with programme and abstract book.

Speakers

Aim for a good balance in the invited and contributed talks with representative from across your field of interest. Try targeting younger researchers for the invited talks to both promote newer voices and reduce the number of talks given by senior scientists who give similar talks at multiple conferences every year.

Have a few backup speakers in case there is a cancellation a few days before the conference. Provide invited speakers with guidelines to any points you would like them to address in the context of the meeting. Make sure you have the mobile numbers for all your speakers to hand in case they haven’t arrived when you expected them to. They might just be stuck in traffic, but a brief phone call will explain their delay and save you anxious moments!

Scheduling - Avoid talk fatigue!

Don’t pack the conference schedule with long days and short talks. Aim for fewer longer talks that present substantive material without speed-talking. Allow plenty of time for breaks. Interacting with fellow attendees is many times the most important element of a conference. At a minimum, aim for a 30 minute morning break, 30 minute afternoon break, and 90 minutes for lunch (shorter if it’s provided onsite and there is no exhibition). People often attend conferences so they can network – create that opportunity. However, bear in mind that if you have exhibitors and sponsors in attendance, it is important to allow dedicated time for them to speak with your delegates. After all, this is why they are there and they will continue to support future events if they can demonstrate the return on their investment by meeting lots of delegates and demonstrating/discussing their products/services and current research.

• Set up coffee breaks by the posters and develop facilitated poster review sessions – a process that can be augmented by having a prize for the best poster presented by a young scientist.
• Remind your session chairs – and then remind them again – to keep speakers on time. If you think this will be an issue, pick senior researchers who don’t mind stepping on a toe or two to keep things humming along. Conference Collective recommended using a “traffic light” system that helped to keep everyone on time.
• Have a late start the morning after the conference dinner.
• Be sure to schedule talks and sessions so presentations are grouped in a natural way while avoiding too many similar talks in a row.

At the conference site

Have backups for pretty much everything: projectors, microphones, laser pointers, batteries, etc. Print tickets for any special events and distribute them at registration to make logistics at said events a little easier. When printing nametags, don’t bother with the conference name and date (we all know what conference you’re at!) and use large font for the participants’ surname. If you can, print on both sides since they almost always flip around. Remember, people come to network – help them get the most out of the conference.

Don’t provide conference-themed coffee mugs / tote bags / backpacks. Most of them will be left in the trash can in the hotel room. But remember that in some cases these represent unique sponsorship opportunities for your conference. Ensure your wireless setup has enough bandwidth – this is often the #1 complaint of attendees. Have signs that show the locations of each room, including restrooms, registration booth, etc. as well as maps of the building and surrounding area (another sponsorship opportunity!)

Every morning, before sessions start, have a few slides rolling automatically on the screen with useful information and program updates. Set up a cork bulletin board so participants can post messages to each other. Have assistants available to help speakers get setup and to preview their talks and make last minute changes. Have someone taking formal notes at all the sessions so you have the option to create a record of the proceedings.

Take photographs throughout the event to post on your website – this also helps with promoting the next event and gives your organiser a useful record of what things looked like. After the meeting Write up the conference proceedings – it is often suggested that these can be a waste of time but it is good to have a record of proceedings in cases where discussions have brought forward paradigm shifts in thinking – and how do you otherwise predict just when that might happen.

Thank your local operating committee members at the end of the conference – then thank them again. This goes a long way.

Founded in 1988, AHPPI represents physicians, nurses, clinical scientists, project managers and various types of support staff – who work for organisations, such as pharmaceutical companies and contract research organisations (CRO), involved in the early development of new medicines. Many of the big pharmaceutical companies and CROs in the UK are represented among our membership. The purpose of the AHPPI is to provide a forum for continuing education in clinical pharmacology – the discipline that underpins early development of new medicines – and in the regulatory aspects of early development of new medicines. With the current challenges resulting from Brexit, the AHPPI represents perhaps the only independent body representing all early-stage development stakeholders in the UK and is involved in talks with all parties planning the future of our industry. Perhaps you should look into becoming a member if you want to have an impact on the way research is conducted in the New Europe.