Challenges

Since we had to wait for protocol approval before commencing the meetings, we could not commit to signing contracts for venues or sending out invitations to the sites. We also needed to ensure that each meeting would have the same look and feel regardless of the venue. As the lead-times would be short we had to be able to send out invites and book flights as soon as possible to reduce costs.

Solutions

MD Events allocated an Account Manager to deal with the whole series of meetings, and a dedicated Event Team to each individual meeting; combining teams from both our UK and USA offices. We worked closely with the Sponsor and CRO to devise a number of contingency plans which would allow us to move quickly once approval was given. Where possible we chose venues which we had previous experience of or that had been recently site visited to speed up the process. In addition we increased the number of Event Coordinators to allow us to process the invitations and flights quickly.

Outcome

Though the lead-time from approval to the first meeting date was less than 3 weeks we were fully prepared to meet the challenge, with the result that we got 95% site representation for that meeting. With the advantage of our large in-house teams in both the US and UK we could ensure that we maintained consistency between all the meetings.

“I am still amazed that you managed to put these meetings together in such a short space of time. I am even more amazed (though not surprised) that the end result was so well executed and the feedback we received was really positive. Thanks to you and everyone who worked on this series, and I promise that we’ll have more time to plan the next one!.”

Director - Global Clinical Programs