43 Organizing and Planning Local,

Regional, National and

International Meetings

and Conferences

Zofia DziewanowskaandLinda Packard

Using scientific meetings appropriately can be
one of the most powerful tools for the promotion
and phase IV development of corporate assets.
Other types of meeting, crucial in the develop-
ment process, are investigators’ meetings, pan-
corporate international staff meetings and
conferences to resolve issues of harmonization
or standardize clinical trial methodology. Almost
all clinicians working in the industry will, from
time-to-time, find themselves taking part in such
meetings, whether as speaker, attendee, reporter
or chairperson.
Most clinicians lack formal training in meeting
planning. Hands-on experience is always the best
tutor, but perhaps here we can provide some clues
and frameworks for how meetings take place.
In what follows below, we shall concentrate on
large meetings. Small meetings will obviously
only require a subset of all this.

43.1 Goals, types of meetings

and participants

It is usually best to start with the goals of the
proposed meeting. This will dictate the type of
meeting, its duration and participants. Organiza-
tional approval of these goals is asine qua nonand

should be obtained early. Table 43.1 provides some

examples.

With the goals of the meeting in place, the for-

mat and content of the meeting can then be

designed. Usually, this works best if a meeting

chairperson or central organizer can be identified.

This should be a person who is experienced in the

type of meeting that is envisaged, and who can

clearly enunciate a vision for the future meeting

to the many and varied people who will eventually

have to implement the plan. In the case of large

meetings (Table 43.2) there may be separable parts,

and desirable chairpersons for each part may

well differ in their background and experiences

(Table 43.3).

Large meetings inevitably require professional

organizers, whereas small ones might simply use

volunteers. One way or the other, these people

deserve good leadership, and it will be your meet-

ing that will suffer if those deployed are not put to

good use. Professional organizers will obtain the

relevant physical space for the meeting, get the

meeting advertised (if appropriate), coordinate

the preparatory materials and their distribution,

handle the catering contract(s), manage registra-

tion, handle the social and companion programs,

and basically do everything that you do not want to

do. Getting a local meeting professional is always

Principles and Practice of Pharmaceutical Medicine, 2nd Edition Edited by L. D. Edwards, A. J. Fletcher, A. W. Fox and P. D. Stonier
#2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd ISBN: 978-0-470-09313-9