My Unexpected Takeaways From The SCRS Conference

By Dan Schell, Chief Editor, Clinical Leader

Don’t you just hate conferences? I mean, they cost so much and take up so much of your time!

What’s that? How was the recent SCRS Site Solutions Summit I attended this week?

Oh man, let me tell you about it.

I got there early Monday afternoon, and as soon as I walked into the hotel lobby, there were people sitting and standing everywhere talking, meeting, and — get this — laughing! The latter came from a rambunctious crew calling themselves

“Coffee to Gro” that were occupying the couches and tables in the lobby while they ate snacks and did crafts. Then, some dude showed up wearing a giant blowup heart costume and proceeded to walk around the halls getting lots of hugs!

Weird.

I did see some cards being exchanged and what looked like some more serious conversations going on, and honestly, a lot of the folks in that lobby seemed to be conducting some type of business, but I figured I’d better sneak by and get to the registration desk. After all, I needed to get to the real conference, and I didn’t have time for these shenanigans.

Constant Conversations

It's funny, now that I think of it, throughout the halls, wherever there were chairs, tables or anywhere to sit, I saw tons of people having conversations. Someone had told me that this show was known for a lot of networking, so I guess that’s what was on display here. Still, I wanted to hear some of the sessions and check out the exhibitor hall.

I’ll admit, I did run into a few people I already knew. And some of them actually introduced me to some site owners, site staff, and even some sponsors. I met people at the tables in the large auditorium where the early sessions were held and outside the exhibit hall when I would sit down to eat some of the — frankly — pretty good conference food offered. I

remember within an hour, I met a person who had just grown their site network to seven locations, another site owner who’s site was only two months old and who was there because she knew it was the best place to meet sponsors for trials (her words, not mine), and a ClinOps professional with over a decade of experience who was working on developing training and education programs for new site personnel.

When I finally attended some of the education sessions, that was kind of weird, too. Not weird like the guy in the heart costume, more … unexpected, I guess. For instance, most of the sessions I attended were not in huge rooms; there may have been seating for 40 or so. But the unexpected part was how involved the audience was in each of the panel discussions. Almost immediately, the panelists would ask the audience their thoughts on a topic or ask for examples of

successes — and even failures — while sharing their own insights. There were always sponsors and site personnel on the panels along with some tech vendors, which made it pretty interesting, actually, since they had to answer some touchy questions about controversial issues such as competitive enrollment. Vague answers were quickly sussed out by audience members who would speak up and ask “Why?” There weren’t many wallflowers in these sessions.

Session Highlights

So, yeah, my days were a total waste of time … except for that session I attended on how psychedelics trials are run! I never knew all the intricacies that go into setting up a space for these trials. The attendees and panelists at this session were all just freely sharing stories and advice. Like, did you know that the DEA has to inspect your site if you’re running these trials?

But, seriously, that was about it.

Oh, wait, there was this one session with four site owners who had experience with selling or acquiring sites, often involving PE investment (pretty popular topic these days!). They talked about their experiences buying, selling, and then — sometimes — buying back their sites. The moderator frequently pressed them for details

and personal anecdotes on stuff like how to structure financial deals like earnouts and equity rollovers or how to negotiate an NDA. The room was packed, and everyone thought it was funny when the one panelist called due diligence process a “corporate colonoscopy.”

I mean, I did enjoy Ken Getz and Jimmy Bechtel’s presentation about some of the research SCRS has done along with Tufts. Oh, and I met and had some good conversations with three PIs and maybe, I don’t know, probably a dozen or so other people from sites or sponsors. I even got to reconnect with some of the folks I’ve interviewed or had on Clinical Leader Live webinars, such as Nick Palumbo from Takeda, Stacey Bledsoe of Gilead, Laura Hilty of HealthX Ventures, Garo Kiledjian of the SGM Alliance, Karri Venn of SCRS, Devora Henderson of Elevate Clinical Research, Bridget Ristagno-Cabets of PanAmerican Clinical Research … well, I think you get it. There were a lot of people there. Actually, about 1,900!

 

Hmmm… maybe I should reconsider my opinion on conferences. Sure, some can be pricey, and being away for a few days means you have to play catch-up when you get back. But the real value shouldn’t be measured simply by cost and time spent — it’s more about how much you learned and how many connections you made that can further your business. But that’s not a given; you have to be proactive or, at least, willing to interact and get involved.