The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to have a significant impact on the way we do business. As office workers are still widely encouraged to work from home where possible, video calls continue to replace meetings, digital matching services are substituting sales calls, and webinars are replacing conferences and exhibitions. In order to maintain and grow your network of contacts in a post-COVID world, business leaders must align themselves with communication technologies. Many might benefit from considering shifting their sales and marketing models to a more digitally-driven approach.

Throughout all of this, I think that what I – and probably a lot of you – miss the most are the trade exhibitions that allow us to meet with old friends in the industry, and catch up on the latest company news face to face. Regular fixtures in my annual calendar have been erased for the first time in several years, and I can’t help wondering if we will ever have events on a ‘normal’ scale ever again.

Recent research performed at the UK’s University of Westminster (based on 675 survey respondents from 59 countries) predicted a significant reduction in demand for events globally, with 40% of respondents suggesting that the business they are involved in may not exist in its current form by 2021.  There was evidence that downsizing, sharing and the relocation of premises to decrease costs was taking place throughout the sector. Of course, the impact also ricochets on other sectors, such as trade magazines that depend on events for their circulation (and advertising revenue), exhibition stand designers and builders, marketing communication agencies, and yes, people like me – freelance writers and consultants who provide to those providers.

As with any challenge in business, the solution must lie in agility to meet new demands. This has been reflected by top pharma events companies launching virtual events. The platform on which this article is published is just one example of a large annual event - CPhI & P-MEC China – being transformed this year into a virtual CPhI & P-MEC China E-Trade Season from August to December 2020. 

This type of approach is not just pragmatic in the face of COVID-19 – it could actually encourage participation from people who might not normally be able to attend a particular event in person. The ‘virtualization’ of events could broaden their reach beyond their usual audiences, over a longer time period, while minimizing costs for organizers and participants. In fact, you could argue that for many events (especially academic or educational conferences), the shift to virtual platforms may democratize access in a way that was almost unimaginable pre-COVID-19. Having said that, many conferences had started live-streaming some of their keynote presentations, so is this just a step forward that might have been inevitable in the long run anyway?

Many pharma companies and online medical supply companies are also jumping on the webinar bandwagon to emphasize and showcase their technical knowledge and expertise, in the absence of trade exhibition shows. Of course, there are many companies doing this, but the two that I am following closely for their webinars are Catalent and WuXi. Both CMROs have organized a range of interesting and informative webinars over the past few months, demonstrating how it is still possible to exhibit a company’s assets in the absence (and without the high costs) of a physical exhibition platform. Many companies were already offering webinars before the pandemic so, as with the virtual conferences, is this just a step forward that might have been inevitable in the long run anyway?

The problem lies, as always, in that lack of personal interface. It cannot be denied that sales meetings are best performed in person. In the absence of face-to-face meetings, technologies such as Zoom, Cisco WebEx, Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, and others, have seen an explosion in use since the start of the pandemic. Many companies are now reliant on them for communication and collaboration, within and between organizations. Dare I suggest that with increased pressure from environmental groups regarding the impact of international travel, not withstanding the costs of those trips…. is it possible that we would have made this shift in the long run anyway?

So yes, I think you can probably see where I’m going with this. In my personal opinion, many of the changes in the way we are now having to communicate and do business probably would have taken place over the next decade or two anyway. The COVID-19 pandemic has just rushed those changes along at a tremendously accelerated rate. Having made those changes, however, it seems likely that many companies might recognize the benefits and retain many of these technologies post-COVID. Many people are already questioning the need to return to the office when they have demonstrated perfectly adequate efficiency working from home. Could the same apply to events?

I’m not suggesting that we’ll never attend a conference or exhibition in person again – but I like to think that physical events might be run alongside virtual events that are accessible to those less able or willing to travel. People might then have more options for remote participation, which might mean that the physical events themselves might be smaller, more focused, and potentially even more useful – as those who really need to be there attend in person, and those who can get what they need remotely can do so from the comfort of their homes or offices.

In summary, I suspect that COVID-19 has changed the way that we do business. Not just in 2020, but probably forever. Only time will tell if I’m right. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy your virtual meetings, your virtual coffee breaks, and your virtual water cooler chats.

Thank goodness, once again, for digital technologies!

Author biography

Sarah Harding, PhD

Sarah Harding worked as a medical writer and consultant in the pharmaceutical industry for 15 years, for the last 10 years of which she owned and ran her own medical communications agency that provided a range of services to blue-chip Pharma companies. She subsequently began a new career in publishing as Editor of Speciality Chemicals Magazine, and then Editorial Director at Chemicals Knowledge. She now focusses on providing independent writing and consultancy services to the pharmaceutical and speciality chemicals industry.

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