“What is ISPE?” “Why are you a member?” “What do you do there?” We’ve been asked these and many more questions multiple times since joining ISPE. After the ISPE Emerging Leaders Future Leaders’ Days 2022, we wish we had taken everyone who had ever asked us a question about ISPE with us.
The ISPE Emerging Leaders CoP has regional subgroups spread across the globe. It aims to provide students and people new to the pharmaceutical industry with the opportunity to take their first steps in a new environment and to equip them with a broad pharmaceutical knowledge and skillset. Future Leaders’ Days events take place once a year and are completely organized and planned by Emerging Leaders. This year’s event was hosted by Sanofi and PwC in Frankfurt. We highly appreciated the hospitality and supporting program and want to express our deepest gratitude.
This year’s event was also my first time to attend Future Leaders’ Days and I am so glad that I was a part of the organization committee consisting of ISPE Emerging Leaders: Dr. Natalie Schützler, Dr. Melanie Austrup, Svenja Meyer, Kieu-Trang Tran, Dany Shami, Christoph Bierer, Rebecca Roscher, Silvana Schramek, and Tom McDermott. Believe me when I tell you that the outcome of our planning has even exceeded our expectations.
The event started with a guided tour through the Industriepark Höchst. A bus drove us around the park for about an hour, and we were accompanied by an expert who showed and explained the individual Sanofi facilities.
The first day ended with an amazing networking dinner in the Sky Lobby of the PwC Tower. Being located on the 48th floor of the tower offered an incredible view of the Frankfurt skyline. To engage everyone in discussion, PwC organized an interesting panel discussion on the topic of environmental social governance. The panel included three experts from the focus area and led to an engaging discussion with the entire audience.
On the second day, participants reconvened at the Sanofi site for a program of talks and interactive workshops. The program was structured into two topical streams: Career & Leadership and Digitalization & AI. The two streams ran simultaneously, and participants could freely switch between the two. From the exciting talks and stimulated discussions, you could clearly feel the motivation and enthusiasm of all the participants during the event.
The organizing committee was amazed by the efforts of all speakers to deliver high-quality presentations and interactive workshops where the participants could immediately apply the newly acquired knowledge in playful exercises. Again, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to all speakers.
Our speakers in the Career & Leadership stream were Chris Williams, Jasmin Raschendorfer, Erwin Seelhorst, Anne Reuschenbach, Tristan Tait, and Laura Brieden. They covered topics like inspirational leadership, career development, value of mentorship programs, agility of working groups, and many more.
The Digitalization & AI stream was represented by Robin Schiemer, Gregor Schug, Jan Derfoth, Roland Wölfle, Ángel Gil Nolskog, Christian Müller, and Tobias Hahn. The talks covered topics such as smart factory, in-silico accelerated CMC, value of data for business operations, and many more.
In both streams, an interactive session followed a block of two talks, led by the two respective speakers, engaging all participants in collaboration, reflection, and teamwork.
The organizing team Lead and Co-Chair of the ISPE D/A/CH Emerging Leaders & Students, Natalie Schützler, summed up the Future Leaders’ Days 2022 perfectly: “ISPE Future Leaders’ Days is networking, networking, networking.”
It is difficult to summarize two incredibly successful days in one article. We recommend that you simply be a part of the ISPE Emerging Leader Future Leaders’ Days 2023 and take this experience with you. And who knows, maybe you also want to be part of the next organizing team.
