Pharma event planners are navigating six major shifts:
- Pressure to prove event ROI
- Rising meeting costs
- Accelerated planning timelines
- Global compliance requirements
- Risk mitigation
- Evolving sustainability expectations
The organizations adapting most successfully are creating more standardized, data-driven and scalable event programs.
Few people have had a closer view of these challenges than ITA Group’s Kate Bowers. She guides global pharma teams through evolving event strategy to improve meeting and event performance.
We asked Kate about the trends shaping pharmaceutical event planning and what organizations are doing to adapt.
Q: How are pharmaceutical organizations approaching event ROI differently?
Kate: More organizations recognize that the value of a meeting isn’t limited to what happens during the event itself. Attendance and satisfaction still matter, but there’s growing interest in what happens before and after the meeting.
Reframing success involves asking different questions about what to measure.
The most successful pharma meetings and events connect to a broader engagement strategy.
- Reinforce content introduced at the Plan of Action (POA) meeting or a national sales meeting in regional meetings and day-to-day sales with their HCP. The message becomes part of everyday conversations rather than something attendees heard once from the stage.
- Revisit key themes regularly through a communication campaign that continues to connect the meeting content back to conversations with colleagues and HCPs.
When the content introduced at a POA meeting is still showing up months later in coaching conversations, regional meetings and customer interactions, that's when you know it's making a real impact.
Related: Extend the impact of your event by rethinking strategy
Q: How are pharmaceutical event planners managing costs?
Kate: Inflation, hotel pricing and supplier costs have increased significantly over the last several years, forcing organizations to look more closely at how they allocate their event budgets.
That’s changing how organizations think about value.
ITA Group asks: Where can we provide the most savings or value throughout the life of the program?
Our team mitigates expense increases and helps realize cost savings by negotiating on our clients’ behalf during sourcing, contracting and reconciliation.
Throughout the process, we identify opportunities to reduce expenses, avoid unnecessary spend and find efficiencies.
In many cases, clients choose to reinvest savings into additional engagement opportunities.
- Adding a regional meeting
- Expanding attendee participation
- Investing in other strategic priorities
Q: How does ITA Group manage the condensed pharma meeting planning timelines?
Kate: Many organizations are operating on accelerated timelines driven by product launches, advisory boards, evolving market conditions and leadership priorities. Teams increasingly need to bring complex meetings to life in months rather than years.
Efficient and consistent operations from our Pharma Center of Excellence help facilitate those tight turns.
Because we nurture supplier relationships and have consistent sourcing and operational processes, we quickly identify venues, negotiate favorable terms, and move into execution. Finding quality hotels with enough meeting capacity for event breakout sessions is key to creating environments conducive to learning.
Attendance estimates can also change significantly. Supplier relationships often enable flexibility to adjust room blocks, meeting space, or event requirements while helping manage costs and reducing risk for the client.
Our planning window for a larger meeting might be six months, compared to a year or two for incentive travel. Repeatable processes and strong hotel partnerships help secure space and maintain momentum.
Q: What matters most for pharma meeting compliance, especially as organizations expand globally?
Kate: We’re seeing compliance become more complex rather than more standardized.
One of the biggest mistakes organizations make when expanding globally is assuming compliance frameworks, HCP regulations and attendee guidelines are similar market to market. Local expertise and understanding global nuances are critical, especially for HCP engagement.
That’s one of the reasons ITA Group acquired U.K.-based C2events. Their 20 years of in-region healthcare and pharmaceutical event expertise in international markets strengthens our ability to support clients, including enhanced compliance and global coordination.
The most successful teams are building compliance into planning from the beginning rather than treating it as a final review step. That approach helps reduce risk, avoid costly adjustments and create a more consistent attendee experience across markets.
Q: How does your pharma event planning team approach risk mitigation and management?
Kate: We mitigate risk through site-specific event safety and data security.
Our global security partner gives us insights into what’s happening on the ground in any city we’re operating in.
Political unrest and weather challenges often require rebooking flights and destination changes. Thankfully, our in-house group air management team responds quickly to any disruption.
As organizations continue to strengthen their security requirements, demonstrating strong governance and secure processes is now just as important as delivering a great attendee experience.
- Registration data: Pharmaceutical clients want to feel confident in how attendee registration data is collected, stored and shared, particularly when personal information, travel details or healthcare compliance requirements are involved.
- Financial controls: We also see questions around who has access to budgets, how expenses are tracked and approved, and what processes protect financial information throughout the life of the program.
- Data privacy: For global programs, there are often additional questions about data privacy requirements, where information is stored and how third-party suppliers access attendee data.
Ultimately, clients want assurance that the partners managing their meetings and events can protect sensitive information with the same level of care and diligence that they do within their own organizations.
Related: Gain insider tips for securing stronger corporate event risk mitigation with our RFP guide.
Q: What sustainability capabilities are pharma event planning teams asking agencies about?
Kate: Sustainability requirements are not going away. Our internal event sustainability task force works with clients to understand what’s important to them and their leadership that align with environmental and social impact goals. We ask hotels and supplier partners about what measures they have in place as part of the process.
The feedback that we get is that everyone wants in-person meetings. However, including virtual and hybrid events in the calendar can support sustainability goals. It also means not pulling HCPs from their practice or office, which can be attractive to that audience.
Q: ITA Group's pharma clients continue to grow. What’s exciting for you about deepening those relationships?
Kate: I’ve worked with the same client for 15+ years scaling strategies to implement globally. Those partnerships stay strong because ITA Group knows we can't become stagnant. We’re constantly exploring new ideas, perspectives, and ways of measuring data and analytics for our clients.
Sometimes, bringing on an agency can feel like a leap. But we make our clients’ in-house planners shine in front of their leadership by managing successful meetings.
It’s all about staying nimble, finding operational efficiencies and focusing on growing their business. A partner with a strategic meetings model, an event analytics team and more is important.
Pharmaceutical event planning teams need partners they can trust. Discover how a long-term strategic event partnership improved attendee satisfaction and cost savings.