Ticket to Biotech

Not one, but two East Coast T2Bmeets coming up this month for biopharma communicators in NY and Boston! » T2Bmeet @ NY Networking Event Tuesday, September 24th, 4:30-7 p.m. ET, come and go Hosted by Real Chemistry, 199 Water St., NY, NY 🎟 RSVP: https://lu.ma/p8el8xq1 » T2Bmeet @ Boston Networking Event Wednesday, September 25th, 4:30-7 p.m. ET, come and go Hosted by Third Rock Ventures, 201 Brookline Ave., Boston 🎟 RSVP: https://lu.ma/rx9kf5dv Huge thanks to our fabulous ad board members Cynthia Clayton and Sherry Pudloski for helping us convene biopharma communicators of all kinds and career stages at these upcoming regional events!

What’s the “universal truth” that ties together everything at Endpoints News? We were recently privy to an inside look at how the business and editorial teams are both driven by the vision to be “a really essential partner and resource for the industry,” as CRO Ryan McRae put it.

✨ This month in Pulse Narratives, we’re spotlighting Usman Hameedi, MS. Usman is currently a scientist but has a background in poetry and is exploring what a career in biopharma communications could look like. We welcome biopharma comms pros of all kinds and all stages, including aspiring communicators, to T2B! 💬 Usman has started learning about biopharma PR and comms from T2B ad board member, Trista Morrison, NACD.DC. “From press releases to social media posts to strategic planning, it has been wonderful to use my passion for writing in a completely new context,” he says. 📢 Usman joined T2B to learn more about different career journeys in our profession and to become more educated on the trends and challenges that impact our work. 💯 Day to day, Usman focuses on who he wants to become, not what he wants to be: “This stems from my previous life of trying to become a doctor. Getting into medical school didn’t work out for me, and it was difficult to sit with the fact that a dream of mine wouldn’t happen. “By focusing on the person that I wanted to be (my ideals, the way I wanted to show up for people), I’ve given myself more purpose and confidence that my unique path is right for me.” 🔷 And, we’re certainly glad that that path has led Usman to our community!

A really interesting webinar last week by the Public Health Communications Collaborative on New Approaches to Vaccine Communications. You can view it (or just scan through the deck) here: https://lnkd.in/eB2jcc-7 Here are some of the key takeaways for me... 1. Questions around the COVID vaccine really damaged trust in vaccines altogether -- especially newer ones. There seems to be less doubt around MMR vaccines, flu vaccines, etc... 2. Many people trust their own research around vaccines more than they trust experts (Yikes!). They don't see themselves as succeptable to misinformation. 3. It's important for health communicators to be open to people's opinions and feelings about vaccines. It's not effective to argue with them or tell them their beliefs are scientifically incorrect. 3. The strongest pro-vaccine messages touch on the long history of vaccines and their effectiveness. That's most effectively coupled with reminders of how serious these illnesses can be. Think polio. 4. It can be effective to bust specific myths about vaccines. For example, showing that the flu vaccine can't actually cause the flu. This is a way to target a specific misconception without completely shutting down vaccine doubt more broadly and potentially alienating the target audience.

Registration closes today at noon for our September Comm Convo fireside chat with Emmy winner and Webby honoree Tod Plotkin. See you there! https://lu.ma/mhmpyuu0

Today we kicked off the inaugural session of our new Leadership Lab's Corporate Advisor Series with a cohort of a dozen senior biopharma communicators. Over the next several weeks, we'll work with executive coach Carly Goldsmith, PCC to elevate our influence as corporate advisors and leaders in the complex and highly regulated environment of life sciences. From all over the country (plus Europe!) we convened to dig into the first module, focused on self-leading. Carly shared that leading the self "involves self-awareness and the ability to self-manage; being aware of your strengths and weaknesses and being committed to continuous improvement." Without giving too much away, we talked about strategies for cultivating that self-awareness, including examining triggers that are common but that we may not always recognize in the moment. Carly challenged us to look a little closer at situations where we may typically react too quickly by first considering assumptions we might be making, and asking ourselves what we really need in that moment. The goal is to move from *reacting* to *responding.* What are triggering situations that provoke a reaction vs. a response for you?

“As we move more and more towards a knowledge-based society, the ways in which information is created, shared, and communicated are drastically changing, necessitating a foundational rethinking of digital communication paradigms.” ⬆️ That’s according to a digital communications literature review ( https://lnkd.in/gaPYrBHr ) last year in the journal, Management Review Quarterly. How are you rethinking telling the stories of medical discovery, the scientists who drive the work, and patient impact in the digital era?

⏰ See you tomorrow for our September Comm Convo tomorrow with Tod Plotkin on digital storytelling in biopharma!

We’re trying something new with T2B’s upcoming AI Open Forum mini-series. Our first one is this Friday, September 6th. Each forum will be super informal. We’ll do a few demos, have a conversation, answer questions, and problem-solve together around specific technologies or use cases. This week, we’ll be focusing on the creative side of things, looking at Canva and DALL-E. RSVP here: https://lu.ma/evz3iymw 

It shouldn’t be work – or LABOR – to be authentic. “Tell the stories that you want to tell,” said Nia Patel at last month’s Comm Convo. PS - Happy Labor Day to those in the US, and if you're not based in the US, you should still watch this highlight reel. 😎 #LaborDayHumor (<--- Is that a thing?)