Renewal and creativity
As medical associations experience cost pressures,
unpredictable conference attendance levels and the
need to deliver high standards of education
and interaction with members, there is a growing requirement for renewal and creativity – a need to do more with less. Associations have to be able to demonstrate that their content offerings and networking opportunities genuinely add value to members. By moving with the times, associations will build a sustainable competitive advantage through more effective collaboration and partnership with industry. The European Society of Organ Transplantation, for example, hosted a fully digitalised and paperless Congress last year, where tablets were used as a platform to engage with delegates and facilitate networking.
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“The reinvention process is easier for those larger, well-funded associations that have a permanent staff and access to consultants, of course,” says Simon Dufaur, MCI Global Director, Cardiology & Haematology Accounts, who co-authored the paper. “All associations need to ask themselves, ‘what is the best way to deliver our mission?’ Perhaps they can service their association community with smaller meetings, or meetings with a specific scientific theme, for example. They need to look at member needs and rethink their purpose.”
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Stakeholders need to collaborate
Stakeholders need to get involved and focus on things
that will drive success, such as strategies that direct
legislators to harmonise Continuing
Medical Education and compliance codes. This will lead to improved access to knowledge and patient care. As sponsorship levels fall associations begin to rely more on guidance, insight and knowledge. Medical associations need to reinvent themselves in order to survive.
Relationships between medical associations, healthcare professionals and industry are fundamental to achieving major healthcare policy objectives around the world. They are central to the translation of research findings into practical applications that improve patient care and public health. Educational meetings remain at the heart of accomplishing these objectives and all participants in the survey felt that ‘medical conferences will remain a key platform of education, data dissemination and networking’.
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An industry spokesperson
Healthcare companies should have a key
spokesperson to influence stakeholders and change
public perception, so that people can see
that the associations, pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals, comply with healthcare regulations and work together for the benefit of patients. This ‘image champion’ would be charged with communicating ‘trust’and ‘value’. Both healthcare compliance regulations and transparency reporting are critical aspects of ensuring the transparent, unbiased and ethically-acceptable sponsorship of medical education.
Lessons for the wider association
community
The concept of progressively re-thinking and reinventing the business model applies to all
associations, which is a challenge as they are
traditionally risk-averse and slow to adapt to change.
“There’s a need for proactive dialogue between all stakeholders across the association sector,” says Simon. “The best platform for this would be an ‘association for associations’ in Europe; a body providing business advice and taking a proactive lead on behalf of all stakeholders to give them more influence.”
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“The white paper highlights the importance of dialogue and synergy between associations and healthcare companies as well as revenue and financial reporting issues,” adds Cerstin Steindorf, Co-author of the paper, and MCI’s Global Account Director Healthcare. “We see immense opportunities for those segments of the medical meetings industry that choose to lead the development of this new framework and focus attention on innovations and progressive developments that improve healthcare value and patient care."
Readers can see the presentation given by the CEO of ESOT, about how they digitalised this event, by watching the webcast of the session at the International & European Associations Congress 2014 in Paris at www.associationscongress.com/ie
To download a copy of MCI’s thought leadership paper, please visit the MCI website here.
To discuss this white paper, join the discussion online at the Associatins Network LinkedIn Group.