EBD Groups event BIO-Europe firar 30 år
Partneringkonferensen BIO-Europe erbjuder årligen ett forum för branschledare att nätverka och utbyta idéer. När den ambulerande konferensen nu firar tre decennier görs det med pompa och ståt i Stockholm, 4–6 november. BioStock kommer att vara på plats, och för att få en bättre bild av vad som väntar kontaktade vi Claire Macht, som i egenskap av portföljchef på EBD Group ansvarar för BIO-Europe.
Bio-Europe attraherar varje år en lång rad intresenter inom life science-sektorn. Bland deltagarna finns forskningsledare, affärsutvecklare, regulatoriska experter, partnerskapsansvariga, patentexperter, konsulter, men även representanter från akademi och patientorganisationer. Den övergripande och gemensamma nämnaren är kopplingen till läkemedels- och bioteknikbranschen.
Partneringkonferensen har för sitt 30-årsjubileum styrt kosan mot Stockholm för tre dagars intensivt nätverkande. I år väntas 5500 delegater delta och över 30 000 möten har planerats redan på förhand.
Relationsbyggande i fokus
Inför nästa veckas event kontaktade BioStock Claire Macht, Portfolio Director på EBD Group. Som chef för den europeiska portföljen ansvarar hon för BIO-Europe, BIO-Europe Spring och Bio€quity Europe, för att leverera partneringkonferenser i toppklass för branschen.
Claire, this year marks the 30th anniversary of BIO-Europe. How has the conference evolved over the past three decades?
– BIO-Europe has evolved with the biotech industry. The conference started out when biotech was also in its infancy. Just as the companies who develop drugs have grown in sophistication in their science and their business acumen, and the industry itself has expanded to include all the actors in a full ecosystem of scientists, researchers, financiers, regulators, patients, clinicians, and manufacturers, so has BIO-Europe.
– As an event, we have had to develop ever-more biotech-specific tools to support that key feature of the industry – partnerships. We have worked to make sure that the event never loses that focus on facilitating dealmaking.
How does BioEurope contribute to fostering innovation and partnerships in the biotech industry?
– As we have grown larger in numbers, we have continued to provide ways for young, innovative companies to get in front of the potential partners that matter to them, whether that is through features of our partnering system, partneringONE, or through the conference program. By using filter and search features, or through profile enhancements, companies can really make themselves stand out in partneringONE.
– We have also added special programs, like the Startup Spotlight for very early-stage companies, built an exhibit hall stage to give more visibility to company presentations, and perhaps most importantly, just made it easier for young and pre-revenue companies to attend through special registration programs.
What are some of the key sessions, panels, or speakers that attendees should be particularly excited about during this anniversary edition?
– Aside from having lots of fun giving each program session a song from the catalogue of that most Swedish of bands, ABBA, our program plays upon the theme of the Scandinavian way of working, which is focused on innovative research, design and delivery but is also highly collaborative. It is a way of working that has resulted in novel approaches to some knotty problems, such as sustainability and gender equality, while being uniquely fitted for a biotech industry where collaboration is at the very center of how business is done.
– We have sessions, such as ‘“Voulez-vous”: Investing in a sustainable future with global pharma’ and ‘“Listen to Your Heart”: Navigating the wild path – Nordic leaders raising the ceiling for women’ that grapple with these issues head-on.
– Some of the interview sessions, such as the ‘The Long Game of Trust: How Novo Nordisk Does Partnering’ with Tomas Landh from Novo Nordisk or Linda Pullan’s conversation with Stephen Pitt from J&J andCristiana Pires from Asgard TX around intra-tumoral patient care, will zero-in on the centrality of collaboration in biotech success. And the ‘“Indestructible”: Why is AI crucial for the future of the biopharma industry?’ session with Hubert Birner from TVM and Verena Schustereder from Google Europe will query where the future of innovation is going to come from.
Regarding where innovation comes from, BIO-Europe has a European focus as the name suggests. In your opinion, what role does the European biotech ecosystem play in the global market? And how does BIO-Europe help strengthen Europe’s position?
– Biotechnology is a global industry but there is always some soul-searching as to Europe’s place in this matrix. I think it is important to remember that there is not a single way of developing a drug and bringing it to market. Similar to biodiversity in the natural world, the variety of research approaches, financing mechanisms, sizes of companies, and different health systems present in Europe alone lead to ways for drugs to be developed and brought to market that might not adhere to the traditional business-building narrative. The complexity of drug development, from early-stage research to post-market follow up, in many ways lends itself to the often more long-term, system-wide supports for these processes that are present in Europe.
– Within this space, BIO-Europe is not just a platform for the initial connections required for collaborations to happen, but it is a community where relationships can develop over time.
Looking ahead, what are your expectations for the future of BIO-Europe, and how do you envision the event evolving over the next decade?
– As I mentioned before, BIO-Europe has grown with the biotech industry. While some of the same things work with a much larger crowd, we are continually looking to adapt how we deliver the conference so that it is not just a blip in a delegate’s annual conference calendar but a memorable experience each year, and one that they don’t want to miss.
– This increasingly means curating a program and activities for smaller groups within the context of the larger event. We started doing so with many of our wellness initiatives, like Rise&Run, our Tuesday morning networking run. Not everyone joins this – and we don’t expect everyone to! – but for those who do, it is often the thing that they talk about for the rest of the day. The memory of the sun rising over the Rhine in Cologne, or the conversation they had with another runner as they went through the Marienplatz in Munich is the one they turn back to once they have returned home.
– We are further expanding this approach to other program elements as well, and aim to deliver an event that allows people to not just meet a lot of people, but the right Providing different ways to interact can facilitate this.
BioStock agerar mediapartner
Kommer du delta på Bio-Europe? Håll utkik efter BioStock under eventet! Vårt partnerteam på plats inkluderar:
- Natasha Bank, Reporter & Business Developer
- Felix Borrebaeck, Production Coordinator & Business Developer
- Jonas Söderström, CEO & Onsite Editorial Lead
- David Björkén, Creative Director & Videographer
- Linus Flink Elmfors, Editor & CBO
