We used to all travel to medical conferences once a year. Both HCPs and pharma employees (MSLs, medical advisors, product teams).
HCPs would present the latest studies and guidelines, while pharma and medtech companies would leverage conferences to launch their new products and indications, gain trust with KOLs, and win share of voice.
Then COVID happened. And we all switched to watching the conferences online - either in real-time (virtually), or on-demand, after the conference was over.
In fact, Ashfield research showed that 92% of HCPs became open to watching conferences online.
So what is the future of medical conferences? What format is going to win? Is it in-person, or online, and if it’s online, will it be virtual or on-demand that will prevail?
The answer is - all three will work, but the winner will be an on-demand format. In other words, the future is Netflix-like.
That’s a bold statement, but let me explain.
#1 In-person conferences’ future
Let’s start with in-person conferences.
In a post-COVID world, we all crave human interaction. At the same time, we experienced the ultimate convenience of not traveling and spending money, while still being able to stay up-to-date with science.
And we started to ask ourselves if networking at the conferences really makes it compelling and valuable enough of a reason for us to take 4-5 days off, and leave our families, practices and businesses.
As a result of this shift in our behavior, in-person attendance will decrease up to 50% in the future. In other words, in-person conferences are here to stay, but for a smaller group of people that truly needs to be there. (This applies both to HCPs as well as pharma/medtech employees.)
As for the rest of us (which is the majority), we have a viable alternative - watching conferences online, either real-time or on-demand.
Let’s talk about Virtual, live conferences.
Virtual live conferences future
I’d like to make a small bet - this format will be the least attractive one.
Here is why: it doesn’t fit into the context of our daily lives. Conferences usually take place from Thursday to Sunday, which means that we need to take two days off of work, and two days from the weekend.
While sitting in front of the screen for hours.
That’s just NOT a compelling value proposition. And if you add to that the difference in time zones, as well as tech issues (server crashing again anyone?), the value of virtual live conferences becomes ever lower.
Sure, there will be a need to watch a few lectures here and there, and try to feel the excitement of the live experience virtually.
However, for the vast majority of us, on-demand will prevail.
On-demand conferences’ future
On-demand conferences enable us to access the conference content at our own pace, throughout the year.
They are incredibly convenient and a highly cost-effective alternative to in-person or virtual conferences.
On-demand conferences allow us to consume content over a longer period of time, respecting the context of our busy lives and many obligations we juggle.
On-demand conferences allow a deeper discussion about the topic, where you can ask a faculty/presenter a question, and actually get an answer asynchronously (as opposed to the 3-minute time for Q&A that’s typical of live conferences).
Here is the part that takes on-demand conferences' value to a whole new level - Netflix-like personalization algorithms. These personalization algorithms make it easy for us to find the content (by having the content find us as well), and they also inform the future content production.
Recent research by Ashfield Meetings & Events shows that they are the #1 most preferred format by HCPs.
If the future of medical conferences is on-demand, where are the opportunities?
If you are a pharma or medtech executive, how do you go from here? How do you continue using medical conferences to launch your products, build trust with KOLs, and win a share of voice?
Here are a few pointers.
We must accept the fact that our behavior and attitude towards in-person conferences has permanently shifted in favor of the convenience that online consumption of conferences brings.
The sooner we accept this fact, the sooner we will find creative ways to see the opportunities created by this shift.
There are multiple opportunities to leverage on-demand conference content, such as:
What to do next?
We hope that you gained at least one new insight from the article! And if you are a pharma or medtech executive launching a new product or indication, and wanting to use on-demand conferences, let’s talk.
EvermedTV has a unique offer in the market: We are the only company that has 37 international on-demand medical conferences in ONE place.
Think original content (videos, posters, slides) on a beautiful Netflix-like platform, that you can offer to both:
Our model is plug-n-play, which means that you’ll simply receive a link from us, and your employees (MSLs, medical advisors, product teams) and HCPs will be able to access the content for 12 months.
As simple and easy as steps 1-2-3.