Only 36 hours before the euroPLX 73 Marketplace for Pharma Business Opportunities started in Vienna, the Austrian Government imposed an administrative order for stricter Corona protection measures after an increase in infection numbers. Other countries followed suite by issuing travel warnings and companies banned business travel to Vienna.
The measures could not have come at a better time to validate the new Marketplace partnering concept introduced by RauCon with euroPLX 73 Vienna on 14 and 15 September. Attendees affected by travel bans easily switched from in-person to video meetings, moving already fixed meeting dates to convenient times during the following four weeks. 65% of the 269 registered participants of euroPLX 73 Vienna resorted to video attendance, saving paid registrations fees and work input. While most, if not all, partnering conferences are currently run virtual, euroPLX 73 Vienna, as prototype of the new Marketplace, showed the way out of the conventions crisis.
»Fact is that there are people who can travel and others who can't. Fact is also that safe destinations can lose this status overnight« says Dr. Norbert Rau, founder of the Heidelberg, Germany, based RauCon GmbH & Co. KG and initiator of euroPLX. »Our customers would not register for a live event without being able to switch to secure video mode anytime, even at the very last minute. This flexibility is guaranteed by the new Marketplace concept.«
Since the number of attendees present at the venue and those attending on video mode can change from one day to the next, conference facilities are challenged to offer contracts which reflect this spread if they want to get back into business.
»Conference facility operators need to adjust contractual conditions in order not to expose their customers to the additional risks resulting from the pandemic situation. Contract conditions which were common before Corona are not appropriate anymore« adds Dr. Norbert Rau. »But convention managers must get moving, too, not hunker down. Merely replacing a live event by an online conference is not really resourceful. Convention managers and conference facility operators must join forces for innovative solutions which meet the current challenge.«
The next Marketplace for Pharma Business Opportunities, euroPLX 74 Athens, will be held on 23 and 24 November as a live-cum-virtual partnering event, too: www.raucon.com
The measures could not have come at a better time to validate the new Marketplace partnering concept introduced by RauCon with euroPLX 73 Vienna on 14 and 15 September. Attendees affected by travel bans easily switched from in-person to video meetings, moving already fixed meeting dates to convenient times during the following four weeks. 65% of the 269 registered participants of euroPLX 73 Vienna resorted to video attendance, saving paid registrations fees and work input. While most, if not all, partnering conferences are currently run virtual, euroPLX 73 Vienna, as prototype of the new Marketplace, showed the way out of the conventions crisis.
»Fact is that there are people who can travel and others who can't. Fact is also that safe destinations can lose this status overnight« says Dr. Norbert Rau, founder of the Heidelberg, Germany, based RauCon GmbH & Co. KG and initiator of euroPLX. »Our customers would not register for a live event without being able to switch to secure video mode anytime, even at the very last minute. This flexibility is guaranteed by the new Marketplace concept.«
Since the number of attendees present at the venue and those attending on video mode can change from one day to the next, conference facilities are challenged to offer contracts which reflect this spread if they want to get back into business.
»Conference facility operators need to adjust contractual conditions in order not to expose their customers to the additional risks resulting from the pandemic situation. Contract conditions which were common before Corona are not appropriate anymore« adds Dr. Norbert Rau. »But convention managers must get moving, too, not hunker down. Merely replacing a live event by an online conference is not really resourceful. Convention managers and conference facility operators must join forces for innovative solutions which meet the current challenge.«
The next Marketplace for Pharma Business Opportunities, euroPLX 74 Athens, will be held on 23 and 24 November as a live-cum-virtual partnering event, too: www.raucon.com
