Description

Based on a 32-question survey of more than 1,400 life science and medical professionals, Scientific & Medical Conferences: Evaluating Promotional Opportunities from BioInformatics, LLC is designed to help marketers evaluate promotional opportunities at scientific and medical conferences. Conferences play an essential role in fostering communication among scientific and medical professionals. In addition to presenting important developments in a given field, conferences offer scientists and clinicians opportunities for career advancement, networking and education. Conferences are also viewed by scientists and clinicians as an opportunity to visit and evaluate vendors from whom they are considering purchasing products-while retaining a great deal of control over the interaction. Attending and exhibiting at these events is clearly an essential part of every vendor's marketing plan. Leading vendors focus on using meetings as an opportunity to introduce new products and technologies, thereby engendering a perception of leadership in the market segment. The decision to exhibit at a meeting should be tied to your company's strategic marketing goals for the segment as a whole, but the question of 'where to exhibit?' is made difficult by the explosion in the number of conferences organized each year. Scientific & Medical Conferences offers a framework that will enable you to concentrate your marketing dollars on the meetings most attractive to your segment's customers rather than base your decision simply on where your competitors exhibit. These insights will help you look beyond the conventional wisdom and hype that often surrounds conferences. By affiliating your company with only the "best" conferences as seen through the eyes of the attendees, your company will promote its products more effectively, enhance its reputation in key market segments and build lasting brand equity. Additionally, for a conference organizer, this report will provide insights into how to attract more attendees and exhibitors by revealing the most desirable elements. Report Highlights Along with a comprehensive overview of significant findings and implications, Scientific & Medical Conferences contains detailed charts and graphs depicting the answers to all 32 survey questions. Below is a glimpse of the key findings derived from a few of the questions. ________________ • "Direct mail from the conference organizers", "alerted personally by colleagues" and "alerted through electronic mailing lists, newsgroups, etc." are the three most common ways in which the respondents learn about upcoming conferences. (Question 6) • The majority of respondents believe the ideal length of time for a conference should be two to three days. (Question 11) • On a lunchtime break, over 40% of respondents are most likely to spend time with colleagues. (Question 17) • Over half of the respondents consider vendor exhibits to be important in helping them learn about new products and services in their field. (Question 21) • Considering using the vendor's products, new and innovative technology or products and relevance to their area of research are the three factors most likely to influence the respondents to visit a company's exhibit booth. (Question 23) • Over 50% of respondents do not believe that corporate sponsorship of events creates a conflict of interest or detracts from the professional value of conferences. (Question 30) (Electronic copy also includes 1 print copy)

Table of Contents

Section 1. Executive Overview & Introduction 1-1 Among the Study's Key Findings 1-2 The Importance of Conferences 1-2 Trends in Scientific & Medical Conferences 1-3 Exhibiting & The Marketing Mix 1-4 Setting Objectives 1-5 Implementing an Effective Exhibition Strategy 1-8 Conclusions Section 2. Study Methodology & Demographics 2-1 Objectives 2-1 Comments 2-2 Definition of Terms 2-4 Panel Type 2-4 Market Segment 2-4 Region 2-4 Job Position 2-5 Area(s) of Research Expertise (Research Panel) 2-5 Area(s) of Clinical Expertise (Clinical Panel) 2-6 Research and Clinical Area(s) of Expertise (Dual Panel) 2-7 Questionnaire Used to Conduct the Study Section 3. Significant Findings & Implications 3-1 Conference Attendance & Preferences 3-2 Choosing a Conference 3-4 Your Ideal Conference 3-6 Exhibitors 3-8 Take Home Information Section 4. Presentation of Survey Data Conference Attendance & Preferences 4-1 Importance of attending conferences to career and professional development 4-2 Number of conferences attended per year 4-3 Number of people attending at the smallest conferences 4-4 Other people with whom you typically attend conferences 4-6 Best conferences attended Choosing a Conference 4-7 Most common ways to learn about a particular conference 4-9 Key professional factors that influence decision to attend 4-10 Key logistical factors that influence decision to attend 4-11 Primary reasons to not attend certain conferences Your Ideal Conference 4-14 Preferred size of a conference 4-15 Preferred length of a conference 4-16 Expected amount to pay in registration fees 4-17 Best time of year to attend 4-18 Favorite cities to attend 4-19 Preferred venues 4-21 Optimal length of a session 4-22 Most popular activities engaged in during lunchtime 4-24 Optional events of interest 4-26 Dislikes about the last conference attended 4-29 Relative amount of time spent at various activities Exhibitors 4-30 Importance of vendor exhibits 4-31 Time of decision as to which exhibit booths to visit 4-32 Factors in deciding to visit an exhibit booth 4-34 Factors in deciding to not visit an exhibit booth 4-36 Types of information found valuable 4-38 Popular promotional items 4-40 Dislikes about the vendor exhibits visited 4-42 Interest in participating in a vendor's technical training workshop 4-43 Most convenient time to attend a one-hour workshop 4-45 Belief that companies' sponsorship of events creates a conflict of interest and detracts from the professional value of conferences Take Home Information 4-46 Alternative means of obtaining information from missed conferences or sessions Section 5. Appendices 5-1 Overall opinions to help organizers of scientific and medical conferences improve the value of their events 5-11 Cross Tabulations of Survey Data 5-34 Other Published Reports 5-36 About BioInformatics 5-37 Our Valued Clients