Jo Merriman, Business Development and Marketing Manager at Concise, outlines the key things organisers need to consider when planning an event.

Recorded 1 November 2017 at a MedComms Networking event in Oxford. Produced by NetworkPharma.tv

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ABSTRACT:

Concise specialise in audience engagement and events technology, so are well placed to advise on planning and running healthcare and pharmaceutical events. Meetings and events organisers should consider four key areas in event planning to ensure the best chance of success.

1. Know who will be in the room. Are they spectators, participants, VIPs, or spies who come with an agenda bearing in mind that participants can switch between categories? The challenge with spectators is to get them involved, while that with spies is to create an event that connects with them emotionally. Participants learn best through action. VIPs need an experience that makes them feel their time has been well spent.
2. Remember the power of storytelling. Weaving a story into your content will pay dividends.
3. Don’t be afraid of technology. Rather than being a distraction, mobile phone apps, such as Chime, can be a vehicle to enable participants to connect with the content.
4. Network, network, network.

Establish goals for your meeting ahead of time. Define what data you want to track, how it will be tracked, and how you will calculate your return on investment (ROI). Recording and analysis of data can be facilitated by an app that takes the grind out of what can otherwise be a major task.

Written by Penny Gray, Freelance Medical Writer

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We are building a library of free webcasts, like this one, for the global MedComms Community and others at http://www.networkpharma.tv and we’d welcome your suggestions for new topics and speakers.

Full details of this MedComms Networking event are at http://medcommsnetworking.com/event_011117.html

Jo’s presentation (PDF format) is at http://medcommsnetworking.com/presentations/merriman_011117.pdf

Jo’s Linkedin page is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-merriman-049b1031/

More about Concise can be found at http://www.concisegroup.com

Filming and technical direction by Mario Crispino, Freelance Cameraman & Editor

[For the avoidance of doubt: this video is intended to be freely accessible to all. Please feel free to share and use however you like. Cheers Peter Llewellyn, Director NetworkPharma Ltd and Founder of the MedComms Networking Community activity at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com]