DIA held their 51st annual meeting last week in Washington, D.C. As always, D.C. offered a conducive environment for great collaboration and conversation despite the hot and humid weather. DIA 2015 brought in over 7,000 attendees and more than 550 exhibitors. Sessions were full and the exhibit hall flowed with steady traffic of individuals seeking to learn more about what each exhibitor had to offer.
Following Day 1, Monday night festivities included the annual celebration hosted by Transperfect with this year’s surprise performer, Snoop Dogg. That’s right! Snoop Dogg was bringing down the house at the National Building Museum. It was an event not missed by many.
I must say that Snoop Dogg’s performance Monday evening was a nice segue into Tuesday’s plenary session focused on disruptive forces in health care innovation and where it’s taking us. Within this session, the moderator set the stage with key trends presented by Daniel Burrus of Burrus Research Associates, Inc. for consideration.
Trends identified included:
1: Collaborate (operate at a high level) vs. cooperate (operate at a lower level; most Pharma/CRO partnerships are more cooperative than collaborative)
2: Communicate (dialogue) vs. inform (one-way communication)
3: Windshield view (wide and open to new ideas and processes) vs. rear-view mirror view (looking behind and doing things the way we’ve always done them)
Disruption within our industry will happen, and we need to look for it and encourage it. These changes are how our industry will continue to strive and grow to new heights.
As the DIA comes to a close we say good-bye to our longtime friends and colleagues and we begin getting ready for next year. Plan on joining us next year at the 52nd DIA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. We will be there with “bells” on.