Don’t let the logistics crash your next Investigator Meeting

During the development, start-up, and execution phases of a clinical program, various meetings help facilitate the study's success. During the development phase, Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) and Key Opinion Leader (KOL) meetings, as well as engagement with patient advocacy groups, are all essential. During the start-up and ongoing phases of the study, Investigator and Study Coordinator meetings are critical in bringing together investigators, study staff, sponsors, and key stakeholders to ensure the trial’s success. Any of these meetings serves as a platform to communicate critical study information, align objectives, and foster collaboration.

Ensuring the right people are being considered and included alongside a well-thought-out and executed agenda is essential for any of these meetings. However, I will save the discussion on these various types of meetings and how to get the most out of them from a content perspective for future blogs. This blog will focus on a component that is often overlooked and, regardless of how well the meeting is designed, can make or break the meeting. When the logistical execution of a meeting goes well, it is barely noticed, but there are logistical issues that can quickly detract from the success of the meeting. 

I was recently invited to, and attended, a technical meeting focused on developing a new therapeutic device. They had some of the leading experts in the medical device industry there, as well as all the key physicians. The agenda promised to deliver an engaging and informative discussion. And the meeting was all of that. However, it could have been better. What limited the meeting was several logistical issues that turned into constant distractions and even ate up enough time that not all topics were covered. 

Here enters the criticality of ensuring the logistics are nailed, which includes, but is not all-inclusive of, venue selection, time and duration of the meeting, travel planning and support, meals, breakout session logistics, and, maybe most importantly, communication up to and throughout the meeting. As with many of us, I have certainly been the one to take care of everything for an Investigator or SAC meeting all on my own. I like to believe they have gone fairly well. However, was spending my time figuring out and managing all the meeting logistics the best use of my time, only to meet those needs subpar? Probably not.
I always believed using a contract meeting planner would be too expensive and just another person to manage. Having used one now for a few meetings recently, I was wrong. The cost is easily covered by my ability to focus on far more critical tasks that align with my everyday role, the logistical execution was FAR better and smoother, and most importantly, all my attention could be on the meeting itself. 

Anchor Point Clinical now has a very good and cost-effective solution for helping you with meeting logistics. So, even if you fall into the camp that I spent too many years in – believing it is not necessary, beneficial, or cost-effective – give us a call and discuss your next off-site meeting.