The end of partnering events as we know them

Even without mentioning the currently most ubiquitous word, we know why partnering events hit rock bottom lately. Sitting face to face across a table is not exactly what you mean by physical distance.
This being said, it seems obvious that partnering events need a new metaphor just like the one that RauCon introduced 25 years ago on 20 June 1995 with the euroPLX concept: just business deals, no lectures, no company presentations, no keynotes, no stunts or similar distractions was tantamount to a new event category, a world’s first.

The Advent of a New Category

Seventy-odd successful euroPLX events later, RauCon now launches the next new category of pharma partnering: the Marketplace for Pharma Business Opportunities.

Why? “Because our customers asked: Why should pharma partnering be confined to a few event days while business development is a year-round challenge?” says Dr Norbert Rau, the designer of euroPLX. “We listened and decided to expand the two-days events to four-weeks marketplaces and to add value and a degree of flexibility for our customers, which is unheard of in the partnering world.”

The idea of tomorrow’s pharma partnering as a marketplace for business opportunities is ripening apace. Registrants for euroPLX and asiaPLX now create and control their own flexible Video Meetings Programme through one, single tool in their RauCon User Accounts. They are able to fix any number of prearranged follow-up or stand-alone video meetings running in RauCon’s secure cloud environment. They can also turn already fixed half-hour event meetings into full-hour video meetings and move them to any date within the four-week period if circumstances require.

Transforming Pharma Partnering

The new era of partnering will combine physical encounters and virtual meetings in the most flexible way possible. Merely replacing the participants’ physical presence at a conference by video links is bound to fail, due to technical and organisational glitches. It causes inconveniences for the participant and adds no value.
While personal encounters will remain essential, executives are getting used to home office work, video conferencing, travel restrictions, and distancing. Business development partnering calls for imaginative and intelligent solutions, not for workarounds. Executives call for a next generation event format, a corona-proof partnering concept that suits their new working habits. They need it right now to support their business activities.

The new euroPLX and asiaPLX Marketplaces are what they are looking for: www.raucon.com.

This article was published in the European Biotechnology News Magazine Summer Edition 2020.