Roambee at Pharma Supply Chain and Logistics Innovation Programme
10th-11th May | Courtyard Basel By Marriott, Basel, Switzerland
The 7th Supply Chain & Logistics Innovation Programme was held 10th-11th May in the Courtyard Basel By Marriott, in Basel Switzerland. It was a very secluded and quiet venue in the hills of Basel. Over 200 people attended this event, a mixture of solution providers and the top 100 pharmaceutical companies in Europe. The event space was small, however this made it easier to network with everyone over the 2 days.
The agenda was packed full of talks, ready to take place from the start to the finish of each day. The speakers on the agenda where mostly solution providers, there was an array of providers looking to help pharmaceutical companies with their supply chain, from the planning stages all the way to execution. Many of the presenters showcased their solution with demos, product features and case studies.
The solution providers had lots of evidence to present what, why, who and how. However, the engagement was lacking throughout the presentations and in the QnAs. The feedback from conversations gave us more insight into why this was happening. After carrying out conversations with a many of the top 100 pharmaceutical companies in Europe, there was an interesting dichotomy we learnt. Everyone saw the value in the solutions being provided BUT there was about a 50/50 split on when to adopt these solutions.
Our solution has got many case studies and customers to back up our value, however this goes up against passive data loggers that has been used for years and is the current standard. This makes our solution as well as many other solutions at the event an early adopter. To be an early adopter you have to be willing to be ahead of the industry, take a little risk, and think about the future. This is the interesting dichotomy we saw at the event.
“still comfortable relying on passive data from dataloggers”
We understand this dichotomy exists in the pharmaceutical industry, therefore we wanted to take everyone on a journey with our presentation on the second day of the event. Scott Mears, Global Field Marketing Manager spoke about “the shift happening from passive to active intervention in the pharmaceutical industry”. Scott discussed the shift happening in the industry and the journey we are taking our customers on to enable them to do this as well (if you would like to see the full presentation, please scroll down to watch below).
“This is what’s happening, this is how companies are shifting, you can be ahead of the industry and act now or stay behind and be forced to move”
At Roambee we like to be different, therefore our talk was a little more unique than your average presentation. Scott Mears stood on the stage in his bright yellow Roambee branded jacket, and after introducing himself and the topic, he played a little game with the audience. Scott told the audience for the first 2 minutes of the presentation, if any of you hear one of these two buzzwords (temperature excursion or real time) I want you all together to say “bzzzzzzz”. Playing this fun little game at the start of the presentation allowed everyone to relax and engage more throughout the talk. After the presentation, all day we could hear people around the event saying “bzzzzzzz”, leaving a lasting impression on the attendees.
For us to attend this event again, we would like to see the ratio of service providers to top 100 pharmaceutical companies become a more 50/50 split, to balance up the content of the event, networking value and voices being heard.