Life sciences event planning often involves rigorous compliance, detailed agendas, and precise execution. For corporate event planners in the pharmaceutical industry, success is often measured by how well a variety of boxes are checked. These can include securing the right speakers, ensuring compliance, and crafting a well-balanced agenda. Yet, even the most perfectly executed event from the most astute event planner can feel flat if attendees leave without making meaningful connections.
Post-pandemic, the need for human connection is stronger than ever. According to a recent article on workplace trends, “It’s clear human connection is integral to employee wellness and has the power to move the needle on key business outcomes, too. So, if you want an innovative workplace that inspires employees to stay, focus on building connections across your teams.”
But what does genuine connection look like in practice? Harvard Business Review explains that connection is about finding commonality and having shared experiences. Creating this kind of connection and chemistry at life sciences events requires more than well-crafted agendas. It means designing experiences that blend education with emotional engagement, professional trust, and opportunities for genuine interaction.
Pharmaceutical and life sciences events are still, at their core, human events. While scientific accuracy, compliance, and credentials are critical, attendees crave more than just facts and figures. They want relevance, clarity, and opportunities to interact with peers and experts.
The real goal of these events extends beyond education. Connection matters. Emotional engagement helps participants retain information, while meaningful interactions build professional trust and long-term relationships. When attendees feel personally involved, they are more likely to leave the event inspired, informed, and motivated to apply what they’ve learned.
By focusing on the attendee experience and understanding how people feel, engage, and connect, planners can transform a meeting from transactional to transformational. Content is the foundation, but chemistry is what makes that content resonate and lead to lasting impact.
In a corporate event landscape that is rapidly evolving (one in which capturing attention in the digital world is more critical than ever), mastering the balance of content and chemistry is what sets a memorable event apart. The ability to infuse chemistry—the perfect blend of emotional engagement, connection, and personal investment—is what turns a meeting into an experience and ensures that your message not only gets heard but also creates a distinct impression. Ultimately, this level of thoughtful planning is what transforms a meeting into something truly meaningful.
Even within strict compliance frameworks, planners can design opportunities for connection.
Consider these approaches:
Creating authentic connection takes creativity and intentional design, and Bishop-McCann has delivered on this for clients in many ways.
One powerful strategy is offering attendees meaningful choices. We’ve designed optional sessions that allowed participants to select topics of personal interest, such as time management, sustainable practices, or finding their voice in professional settings. These sessions encouraged people to connect over shared passions, even across departments. We’ve also utilized a variety of activities, including various wellness experiences (such as sound baths, spin classes, and yoga) and other immersive activities, like curated wine tastings. These activities gave attendees a chance to interact outside of traditional meeting rooms, fostering relationships through shared experiences. Opportunities to meet with leadership in smaller, informal settings, such as coffee breaks or leadership lunches, further strengthened relationships and built trust.
Another memorable approach combined engagement with community impact. At one event in Las Vegas, we partnered with three local charities and created a gamified giving experience. Attendees earned department-specific poker chips for actively participating in sessions, such as asking questions or sitting in the front row. They could then allocate their chips to the charity of their choice by dropping them into clear glass cylinders placed in a highly visible area. This activity rewarded participation, encouraged friendly competition, and gave attendees a tangible way to see the difference they were making for local organizations.
Collaboration is also central to our connection strategies. For a recent meeting, we created cross-functional teams from three different business units and tasked them with designing a cape using provided materials. Each team worked together to create and model their design in a fashion show. The exercise broke down silos, encouraged creativity, and sparked camaraderie, all while reinforcing how collaboration drives success.
Technology has become another key tool for connection. By using the Cvent Attendee Hub, we’ve enabled attendees to interact through games, discussion groups, and peer recognition before and during meetings. At one event, we launched a “show us your pet” discussion group ahead of time, prompting attendees to share stories and photos. The group quickly became a fun way to start conversations and build rapport. During the meeting, attendee shout-outs collected through the app were featured on signage, digital displays, and even called out from the main stage, helping foster a sense of recognition and community.
These examples show that connection can happen in many ways—through choice, collaboration, shared experiences, storytelling, or technology. By weaving these elements into event design, Bishop-McCann helps attendees leave not just informed, but truly engaged and inspired.
Technology and thoughtful environmental design play a powerful role in enhancing connection at life sciences events. Digital tools and event apps with social features, live polls, and direct messaging capabilities can foster interaction before, during, and after the event, creating a sense of ongoing engagement among attendees. Similarly, the physical layout of the event space can make a significant difference. Modular seating, dedicated conversation zones, and flexible room configurations naturally encourage networking and small-group discussions, making it easier for participants to connect on a personal level.
In addition to technology and design, incorporating surprise moments throughout the event can spark excitement and deepen engagement. Whether it’s through creative conversation starters, small meaningful gifts, or storytelling elements that align with the organization’s mission, these unexpected touches can create memorable experiences that attendees will carry with them long after the event ends.
Sustainability is also an increasingly important consideration for life sciences events. Eco-friendly practices for pharma events not only support corporate responsibility goals but can also enhance the attendee experience by aligning with the values of both the organization and participants.
Measuring the success of connection at life sciences events goes beyond counting attendees. Event engagement tracking is essential to understand what resonated with attendees. There are a variety of strategies event planners can use to showcase ROI and inform future event strategy.
Event planners can track attendance rates, session engagement, and participant ratings to glean valuable data on how effectively an event captured attention. Post-event surveys can also reveal deeper insights by asking attendees to indicate their agreement with statements such as, “I made meaningful new connections,” or “This content will improve my day-to-day work.” These responses help planners understand whether the event fostered both learning and relationship-building.
Additionally, leveraging event engagement tracking tools allows planners to pinpoint which elements truly resonated with attendees, providing actionable insights to inform future event design and create even stronger opportunities for connection. To take engagement analysis a step further, planners can leverage the JOY Index™, a service created by Bishop-McCann that utilizes AI and neuroscience to capture real-time audience engagement and uncover what truly resonated. With this data, future events can be designed to maximize connection, enjoyment, and lasting impact.
Even the most compliance-driven meetings can create emotional impact when designed with connection in mind. Chemistry doesn’t happen by chance. Instead, it happens by design. When attendees feel seen and heard, engagement, learning, and loyalty naturally follow.
Want to create meaningful connections at your next life sciences event? Then reach out to our team of experts to help design meetings that create meaningful connections—and spark real chemistry.