Agility. Collaboration. Innovation.
The wait is over… The 2021 ISPE Annual Meeting & Expo is back and will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton hotel from 31 October–3 November. This year’s conference theme, ‘Agility. Collaboration. Innovation.’, truly represents how our industry has responded to the recent challenges. From introducing new medication, producing millions of vaccine doses, or providing very focused personalized medicines for patients, our Life Sciences industry has demonstrated creativity and nimbleness, all while focusing on patient safety and product quality.
The Annual Meeting planning committee is working hard to deliver value for the attendees. While the conference continues with traditional events, such as educational sessions with six focused topics, global regulatory town hall, vendor exposition, facility tours, etc., you will see few changes to the conference layout this year.
- This year's hybrid experience allows you to choose how you participate, whether you join us live in Boston or virtually from anywhere in the world. These new options include pre-and-post event networking opportunities and the Virtual Essentials Pass that is free for all ISPE Members.
- The main events will be held over a period of two and half days, i.e., Monday, 1 November through mid-day Wednesday, 3 November. This arrangement is expected to improve attendance for educational sessions and the vendor exposition, while allowing attendees flexibility to travel over the weekend and depart Wednesday afternoon.
- All committee meetings will mainly occur on Sunday, 31 October in advance of the Annual Meeting or on Wednesday, 3 November following the conference. This will allow members to focus on their committee meetings and not miss out on educational sessions or other networking opportunities.
- The FOYA education sessions and Banquet will take place Sunday, 31 October.
- Breaks/dedicated time has been allotted for attendees to network and visit the Expo Hall.
For this year’s event, we are also focusing on improving our Emerging Leaders (ELs) engagement, previously known as Young Professionals (YPs). There are several ways ELs can contribute to the educational sessions and workshops – co-lead educational sessions, session presentations, moderate focused topics/Q&A sessions, and facilitate panel discussions or breakout sessions, to name a few. The committee recognizes the importance of this integration and we are so pleased to welcome them to the program!
We welcome you to join us for this year's hybrid event to learn and share progress, success stories, best practices, and lessons learned, and yes, also have some fun! Finally, a big “Thank You” to all the vendors and sponsors – your contributions are critical to the success of this largest platform for our industry. Also, a sincere thanks to the ISPE committee and the 2021 ISPE Annual Meeting & Expo planning committee members. As you can see from our smiling faces in the photograph, it’s not ‘all work and no play’ for this committee.
