Conferences are an important way for business development professionals in life sciences to find new opportunities, whether it’s collaborating on an asset or seeking investment. Discover below our top three key factors on how to make a partnering conference a success for you.
Identify Your Target Audience
Firstly, you need to have a clear understanding of the persona that makes up your ideal partner profile. This profile usually includes aspects such as therapeutic field, development phase of their clinical pipeline, the company size, geographic area etc. It is vital that you also have an in-depth knowledge of your own goal for the conference, with them tying into your overall organizational strategy. Some partnering platforms give companies the option to list their conference goals on their profile, which can be utilized to further refine your search and ensure that both you and the other party can mutually benefit from a partnership. Preliminary research can also be conducted prior to the event if you know what organizations are attending. This can be aided through information services like Biotechgate, where you can get an overview of what the company offers and its current activities such as recent financing rounds or clinical trials.
Optimize Your Content
With partnering conferences often hosting hundreds if not thousands of participants, it’s crucial that your profile stands out and immediately captures the attention of a prospective partner. The key to this is ensuring that the content in your profile as well as your outbound messages are short and to the point. First and foremost, you need to show in the message the value that you can deliver when entering a partnership Then briefly describe your organization and yourself. In any case keep the message as short as possible. Some companies tend to receive a large volume of messages before a conference, so you must ensure that you stand out while your opening correspondence is succinct and not overly wordy.
It’s a Numbers Game
Overall, a successful conference is dependent on what you put into it. In theory, the more requests you send, the higher the chance of you emerging from the event with a partnership deal. We’ve found that participants obtain on average 1 meeting for every 5-10 requests sent. Another important aspect to increase the number of meetings is that you are prepared and start your partnering activities early – no later than two weeks before the conference is ideal. Set up your profile with as much information as possible, including a profile picture and what value you offer. As well, open as many meeting slots as you can to maximize your chances of success. Follow-up with other delegates although do not inundate anyone with messages. Also, pay attention to your incoming requests regularly so you don’t miss out on any opportunities. These approaches can help make a partnering conference a success for both you and your organization.
Interested in starting your partnering activities? Register now for free for the next edition of Biotechgate Digital Partnering.