Scientific meetings: leveraging on-site, virtual, on-demand and enduring materials

Lockdown propelled our industry up a steep learning curve for digital transformation, requiring bold moves around strategy, partnerships, content creation and delivery.

So we should, of course, take time to reflect on the outcomes and what the new normal looks like. However, let’s not lose momentum here, because some facts are already clear.

Healthcare professional (HCP) engagement may have become more challenging for pharmaceutical companies in 2020, but the move to remote conferencing closed a pre- existing gap in industry supply versus HCP demand. Long before COVID-19, in 2017:

• 89% of HCPs wanted to access conferences online
• 81% preferred to access conference output throughout the year, rather than be limited to the duration of the event
• 80% valued independent meeting portals supported by pharma
• 90% said being able to access information beyond the physical meeting helped them to apply new medical approaches more quickly.

EPG Health, 2017, Scientific Meetings in the Digital Age

The benefits for time-poor HCPs are clear, and for pharma there is the potential to:

• Reach wider audiences
• Save cost and time
• Increase the lifespan of output beyond the event
• Re-engage via multiple formats and channels
• Build trust.

Perhaps these benefits have not been fully realised for all in the last year, but should we really expect that anyway? How insightful is it to compare digital engagement delivered over a few months with relative urgency and lack of experience to traditional engagement methods evolved and delivered over decades?

The new normal will require new ways of thinking. At EPG Health we have the benefit of insight and experience, having stepped up to demand for remote and digital access to scientific meetings long before COVID-19.