Wyeth Pharmaceuticals this year, like many pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing companies, has had to alter the way it operates its exhibition and convention programs to comply with new healthcare codes of conduct and consequent drops in show attendance.
On the show floor, those rules, which govern interaction with healthcare professionals and were instituted by several states, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Advanced Medical Technology Association, have limited the promotional items and materials exhibitors can give to attendees and require more stringent reporting of who visits booths.
It also has driven planners, such as Wyeth associate director of global congress and convention management Nancy Hoppe, to work more closely with compliance teams, use new data reporting tools and tailor materials to be more medically relevant and educational.
"We have to be more astute in the way we plan our conventions and the activities on the convention floor, so that it gives the doctors a purpose and a reason why they need to stop by the exhibit," said Hoppe, who also is president of the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association.
With the changes instituted in the way that pharmaceutical company exhibitors do business at such large events, there has been less traffic in and out of the exhibits. "What we've noticed is that many of the attendees are not coming into the exhibit as much as we had hoped," Hoppe said. "While they are there as registrants, they do attend the sessions, but what we've seen is a dramatic drop-off in the amount of people who are coming into our exhibits."
As a result of the lower attendance and new codes, Wyeth has tailored its show-floor presentations so that it spends its time differently with clients and prospects. The company purchases pre-registration lists to match physicians and institutions. "While we are at the show, we have a computerized module, that once we scan the badge, we can see effectively if it is somebody we have called on. They see presentation A," Hoppe said. "If it's somebody we are not calling on, then we give them presentation B. Once we get back from the show, we run that list again, and we make sure, for compliance reasons, to see if they received something like an anatomical chart. That gives us the foundation so that we can effectively achieve our objectives."
Hoppe suggested companies also could modify exhibit plans by having smaller floor space, while allocating more resources toward the "value education that we are providing on the convention floor."
Two weeks after a show, attendance data are studied by Wyeth's sales team to track the healthcare professionals they met and identify missed opportunities.
The exhibit team also uses a Web-based program to have doctors become members of wyeth.com for updates of products and services introduced or presented at a show.
As Hoppe and the rest of the Wyeth events team work on plans for new drug launches and entry into international markets, they coordinate with the compliance department and local product managers and legal teams to ensure compliance with country, state and local regulations. They also build an experience around local culture. For example, some international shows require more of a social exhibit with a hospitality lounge environment.
Hoppe manages about 50 of Wyeth's 150 large events throughout the world with a department of 10 that includes four managers, two coordinators, a finance manager and a strategic director. The team sits within marketing operations. Smaller and internal meetings are managed by a separate meeting planning team.
In January, New York-based pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer entered into a definitive merger agreement, in which the company would acquire Collegeville, Pa.-based Wyeth for $68 million. The companies are working through approval processes and expect the transaction to close before the end of the year, according to company documents.
Originally published Sept. 21, 2009