We hired two vendors from the Marcus Evans Summit

“We are currently working with two vendors we met at the Summit and have spent several million dollars on their services already. There is also significant potential for partnerships with other vendors” said Michael Conover, Senior Director Clinical Development / Head of Clinical Operations, Eagle Pharmaceuticals, a delegate at the Marcus Evans Evolution Summit.

What new business opportunities has your organization gained from attending the Evolution Summit?

I made some very good connections with vendors. We are working with two of them right now. We have also had significant follow-up interactions with two more vendors, and are working out the details in order to move things forward for a new program we are planning to start at the end of the year.

Were you already familiar with these vendors?

I had insights into some of them, but unfamiliar with others. At the Summit, I was able to get more detailed information about their capabilities. I would not have interacted with them had we not met at the Summit. Yes, any vendor can potentially call or email me to ask if I am interested in their services, but that kind of approach is unlikely to be successful unless there are no other alternatives in the market. It is the fact that we have had a 30-minute discussion of what they offer, that we will think of them when the need arises. That is a significant advantage for vendors we have not interacted with before.

How would you compare Marcus Evans Summits with other industry events?

One of the key aspects of the Summit is the 30-minute one-on-one conversations between companies and vendors. That gives us the opportunity to go into some depth. At other events, we have only a few minutes with a vendor before we need to move on to the next booth. There can be thousands of attendees. We don’t have enough time to get a grasp of the vendor’s capabilities, so we would need to rely on phone calls and follow-ups. I have a whole deck of business cards sitting on my desk that I have collected from various events, but I would have to pick up the phone and reach out to them. I don’t need to do that with vendors from the Summit. I know what they do. I can just pick up the phone and discuss our program. That is a key difference and one of the advantages of the Marcus Evans Summit.

Is it a difficult process to get through your door?

Like most companies, vendors have a chance to bid on our RFPs, so it is not very difficult. But I can say that a vendor would be in a better position to get a positive response from us if we had a 30-minute one-on-one discussion at the Summit, as we would have a better understanding of what value they can bring to our program. From that perspective, it is a major advantage. The vendor has already overcome some hurdles. We are less likely to collaborate with a vendor we have only talked to on the phone.