Efficient Event Planning: Unlocking Benefits on a Single Platform

Throughout the history of life sciences companies, events have played a crucial role as a promotional avenue for introducing new products and offering scientific education. Customers find value in attending life sciences events for several reasons. Firstly, these events serve as a platform for increasing awareness and engagement, allowing attendees to stay informed about the latest developments and advancements in the field. Additionally, attending such events provides opportunities for continuous medical education (CME), enabling industry stakeholders to enhance their knowledge and skills. Finally, life sciences events facilitate collaboration among industry peers, fostering networking and the exchange of insights.

How events are organized in Asia-Pacific
In Asia Pacific, the bulk of events being run are rep-led, and this could range from one to three events per week, depending on the target frequency. These activities are typically coordinated by marketeers as part of a larger customer engagement strategy or off the back of larger webinars or congresses. Being able to increase the efficiency of event management should be a priority for life sciences companies.

As we leave the pandemic behind, we have also observed that in 2023, face-to-face events are again becoming the foremost event type being held. Virtual and hybrid events are typically being reserved for larger events held by marketing teams.

As pharma organizations seek more efficiencies (potentially in the face of downsizing field forces), organizing an event with potentially broader customer outreach (i.e., one-to-many) might be more beneficial as opposed to managing numerous smaller one-to-one interactions.

Common industry challenges and pain points when organizing events
One of the biggest challenges for life sciences event organizers in coordinating events is to include it as part of a cohesive customer omni-channel strategy. Companies need to have the awareness of each customer segment, their engagement preference and be able to map this to the respective customer journey to make their event attendance more effective. It is also important to link events that take place off the back of global or regional initiatives or as part of a brand campaign.

Another challenge frequently encountered is navigating the gamut of separate IT systems as well as vendor services to coordinate events. It is not uncommon for medical representatives to need to handle tasks such as manually tracking attendee lists, managing speaker commitments & statuses, requesting and tracking budget approvals and recording expenses all while using separate platforms that do not talk to one another.

To top it off, adhering to local compliance guidelines is critical when it comes to spending on speakers and attendees. It is often desirable to have rules that catch possible transgressions before they happen, for example violating an annual spending cap for speakers. Sunshine or transparency laws also require reports on spend and attendances by healthcare professionals or organizations to be submitted according to market requirements.

These challenges can result in events management being an excessively complicated and multi-step process.

Enhanced productivity, traceability and visibility in one place
Veeva Events Management was developed with the requirements mentioned and with customer preferences in mind.

Firstly, Veeva Events Management is fully integrated into Veeva CRM. What this means is that typical events management actions are seamless and easy to use – this could be from something as simple as being able to add verified attendees straight from the CRM database, to being able to send them compliant email invitations, to finally being able to incorporate attendee attendances in reports.

Additionally, Veeva Events Management is able to support the planning and execution of event types ranging from small to large, all in a single solution. It has the capability to manage the entire event management flow – from event planning, managing speakers and contracts, invitation logistics and sign-in to budget and expense tracking.  Integrations to external event platforms like SpotMe or ON24, and to expense systems like Concur are in-built, with the aim of reducing duplicated efforts and enhancing ease of use for teams. Event activity data that is captured can also be disseminated to downstream systems like reporting systems or data warehouses, enhancing greater visibility and transparency across the planning process.

With a proven track record of serving over 100 customers and managing more than 1.5 million events annually on the Events Management platform, Veeva has established itself as a reliable and effective partner for streamlining event processes while also assisting our customers in upholding regulatory compliance. Customers are now able to manage events, large or small, through a single platform that eliminates the traditional challenges of integrating and consolidating data across multiple systems.

As events ramp up in importance in an industry having to think about new ways to operate differently, adopting Veeva Events Management can help to ensure that life sciences organizations obtain more business value in events going forward.

To find out more about Veeva Events Management, reach out to us for a demo below: