A few of my Intouch Solutions colleagues and I spent last Thursday and Friday at the Social Media for Pharma conference in Washington, D.C. Jim Dayton already wrote a nice preview of the event here on the Intouch Soul blog, titled "Intouch Goes to Washington." Intouch was a conference sponsor and also presented a pharma social media case study with one of our clients.
Here’s the full 2-day Social_Media_for_Pharma_Agenda, and for the tweets, just search hashtag #SM4Rx.
The conference organizers’ original plan was to host the very first conference following the issuing of social media guidelines by FDA.
Yeah. Alas, obviously that didn’t turn out to be the case. That said, I’d still call it a successful conference that was worth attending. Here’s what made it different:
- Variety in Industry. We were treated to a variety of industry perspectives. The bulk of the presentations were from the pharma social media viewpoint but there were pharmas of all sizes represented. We also were able to hear from medical device marketers, a b-to-b lab products company, and a patient organization. We heard from marketers from the U.S. and Canada. All of them had something relevant and applicable to add to the mix. And only one vendor (Alliance Health) used their time to pitch their product.
- Variety in Adoption Levels. Conference speakers represented a wide variety of social media adoption. Some were knee-deep, some were just starting out, some didn’t think we should be doing it at all. Bayer Canada’s Claudio Battaglin explained how his company went through the exercise of assessing where/how/if they should become involved in social media. Their conclusion? That their involvement in social media should start -- and stop -- with social media listening. They shouldn’t, in fact, be trying to “talk to the consumer” in social media. Personally, I don’t think that’s the right answer for every company and every situation. But I do appreciate the thought process they went through as an organization, and the courage it takes to have a contrarian viewpoint while everyone else is screaming that “social is the answer!”
- Variety in Disciplines. Speakers and attendees represented the wide variety of disciplines that typically have an interest in social media: Corporate, brand marketing, public relations, and business units all shared their viewpoints. But the mix also included those from the compliance, regulatory, legal, and even HR camps not usually seen at these events. It made for very interesting lunchtime discussions! And? The majority of the attendees were from the industry side, so it wasn't the usual swamp of media/agency/vendor salespeople, which was refreshing. (Note: While me and my team could fall into that category, I like to think we're not the typical sleazy sales types)
- High Level of Interaction. This was bar-none the smallest social media conference I’ve ever attended. I think there were about 60-70 attendees, by design. Cute, right? But what I saw was an amazing level of engagement. I’ve seen many larger conferences’ attempt to “unconference” or try, in general to get away from the one-way death-by-PowerPoint presentation format. That's difficult in a room full of 300 people.
I’m happy to say I didn’t hear the word “unconference” uttered once at Social Media for Pharma, yet it just happened organically. I guess the smaller setting was just more conducive to it. For example:
- During most of the presentations, people weren’t shy about raising their hands and asking questions right in the middle. Full discussions and dialogue happened spontaneously.
- Q&A sessions were usually very lively. As a result, the collective group was able to drill deep into some of the critical questions and issues. Audience members learned from each other as well as the speaker or panel.
- Companies were sharing best practices with each other as peers in an unguarded fashion.
- During breaks and cocktails, because of the small format, I got the chance to truly visit with a number of people in a relaxed atmosphere.
With a quick and informal poll, I learned most attendees walked away from the conference feeling they were able to get their questions asked and answered.
And isn’t that what it’s supposed to be all about – learning and sharing?
It’s a pleasant surprise to me that, although I attend a lot of conferences, I still always walk away having learned something new. Next, I’ll be working up another post on some of those key learnings, so stay tuned!