The BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of biotechnology and life sciences leaders, uses an innovative meeting scheduling platform to enable the kind of one-to-one meetings that drive advances in biotech.
Past conventions have set world records in the number of partnership meetings, with close to 50,000 hosted in a single event, and this year’s June 13-16 gathering in San Diego promises more of the same, thanks to the innovative BIO One-on-One PartneringTM system developed for BIO (the Biotechnology Innovation Organization).
“Our technology simplifies the search for and identification of suitable partners, as well as the arranging of meetings with prospective biotech investors and top business development professionals,” says Mackensie Vernetti, Director of Partnering Operations at BIO.
Let’s make a deal
Partnering opportunities are essential to progress in biotechnology.
The range of development projects necessary to bring new advances to market requires numerous deals—venture deals, institutional deals, license deals, M&A deals, and vendor negotiations.
Facilitating these deals is one of the goals of the BIO International Convention, which brings together thousands of biotechnology and pharmaceutical executives. After two years of meeting online due to the pandemic, BIO will host its International Convention in San Diego in person, from June 13–16, and those attending will be taking advantage of BIO One-on-One Partnering.
An efficient and easy-to-use system
BIO One-on-One Partnering is the most efficient method to do business in the biotech and life sciences industries, according to Vernetti.
The platform is easy to use, she explains.
“The model is simple—you register for the Convention and you get access to the partnering system weeks beforehand,” Vernetti says. “You’re able to fill out a company profile, set your calendar availability for meetings, and then search our database of companies that are also attending and looking to set up meetings. You send meeting requests to potential partners and then BIO schedules the meetings for you, providing meeting locations and times based on mutual availability for you to have on-site at the convention.”
To ensure the most effective meetings, Vernetti emphasizes the importance of setting a detailed and accurate company profile.
“It’s very important to make sure that companies that you’re reaching out to can look at your profile and actually see what your priorities are, what specific news you’ve had, what your pipeline looks like, etc.,” she explains. “Having a robust company profile is essential, as is keeping it up-to-date.”
Vernetti also stresses the importance of identifying relevant targets. “We have a lot of powerful advanced search tools and filters that really help you narrow down the companies that would be a good fit for a partnership depending on what your goals are.”
Find out more about BIO’s One-on-One Partnering platform here.
