Preparing for ASCO 2025: A Playbook for Pharma Teams to Maximize Impact

The American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Annual Meeting is the pinnacle event for oncology professionals, drawing thousands of the world’s top cancer researchers, clinicians and industry leaders. For pharma teams, success at ASCO demands far more than a polished booth or a packed meeting schedule—it requires a sophisticated, months-long strategy to maximize engagement and outcomes.

The challenge: connecting with hundreds—or even thousands—of oncology thought leaders when you have only a small team on the ground. It’s a daunting task, but experience has shown that narrowing your focus to priority contacts and equipping yourself with the right tools can transform this challenge into a strategic advantage.

Over the years, we’ve helped pharmaceutical teams optimize their ASCO strategies. We've learned that exceptional results don’t come from last-minute adjustments but from methodical, data-driven planning.

The difference between average and outstanding outcomes almost always boils down to three key elements:

1. Strategic pre-planning and KOL targeting
2. Efficient time management during the five-day conference
3. Technology that eliminates administrative friction

This playbook distills our experience into actionable strategies to help your team capitalize on every moment of your ASCO investment. From identifying high-priority contacts to leveraging technology that simplifies compliance, scheduling and insights capture, this guide will help you transform your approach to ASCO. Read our other guide for a deeper dive into proper congress preparation in 2025.

ExtendMed's Health Expert Connect™ platform addresses these elements through a comprehensive, compliant solution that:

• Consolidates and manages healthcare professional lists.
• Streamlines scheduling with real-time calendar syncing and automated reminders.
• Tracks attendance and captures real-time insights during events.
• Simplifies compliance reporting and expense allocation.
• Facilitates meaningful engagement before, during and after the congress.

Head to our solutions page to learn more about our platform, and watch the brief demo above to see how we enable stakeholders to efficiently create and manage events, recruit and register attendees, access presentation files, track expenses and share detailed reporting and ROI analysis. Contact us to schedule a demo when you’re ready to start the conversation to plan for 2025.

With the right preparation and tools, ASCO 2025 can be more than a conference—it can be a turning point in your team’s oncology strategy. Let’s dive into how you can make that happen.

1. Start with a clear strategy

Too often, companies leave major conferences feeling like they’ve barely scratched the surface of what was possible. Why? Because they lacked a clear, systematic approach to preparation.

Take this common scenario: A pharma company arrives at McCormick Place with compelling data, a premium booth location and top executives in tow. Yet, they’re soon overwhelmed by ASCO’s scale—squandering their time managing fragmented KOL lists and juggling conflicting schedules.

A strategic framework that ties preparation, execution, and outcomes together is the missing ingredient in almost every situation like this.

Understand how to measure success today

Success at ASCO should no no longer defined by booth traffic or surface-level conversations. Instead, thanks in part to platforms like Health Expert Connect™ that finally enable better goal tracking, companies are shifting focus to measurable, strategic outcomes.

For example, one of our clients transformed its ASCO approach by prioritizing targeted engagement over general visibility. Rather than maximizing booth visits, the client aimed to gather actionable insights from 50 key investigators, which directly informed its product strategy. This focus had far greater impact than casting a wide net without a clear reason.

Through dedicated engagement systems like ExtendMed's Health Expert Connect™ platform, teams can now track several key metrics that were previously difficult (or impossible) to measure, like:

• Meeting and event attendance from high-value KOLs 
• Insights captured from poster sessions and presentations via QR codes 
• Quality of scientific exchange during investigator dinners 
• Specific next steps established in one-on-one meetings 
• Compliance-related information and proper expense allocation
  

Segment your KOL list

Success hinges on engaging the right experts at the right time. Yet, many companies are hampered by fragmented KOL data scattered across clinical trial databases, CRM systems, past attendance lists and sales relationships.

ExtendMed’s Health Expert Connect™ platform efficiently consolidates and manages multiple lists of healthcare professionals, ensuring a smooth event invitation process.

Consider a global biopharma company we worked with: They needed to manage a list of 1,600 principal investigators attending both ASCO and EHA. By segmenting these investigators into 22 targeted communities based on their clinical trials, they enabled highly personalized outreach. Messages resonated because they aligned with each investigator’s research interests—not generic mass emails.

As ExtendMed CEO Amy Ravi notes:

“Personalization is how you stand out in an inbox flooded with requests. When you’re inviting hundreds—or even thousands—of investigators, you need tools to efficiently target and tailor outreach to the right group.”

— Amy Ravi, CEO, ExtendMed

Set clear objectives and KPIs

The most successful teams don’t leave their ASCO outcomes to chance. Before diving into logistics, they define success with specific, measurable objectives that align with broader organizational goals. Being clear about what you want to achieve allows you to tie every decision and action back to what matters most.

Here are some examples of how modern teams are setting and measuring ASCO objectives when they work with us:

Teams that work with us to enable their ASCO attendance use our Health Expert Connect™ platform to track these metrics through features like:

• Automated attendance tracking at various events
• QR codes for gathering immediate feedback at poster sessions
• Real-time insight capture during KOL interactions
• Integrated compliance reporting and expense management

2. Build your KOL network and engage them before ASCO

The most successful companies at ASCO don’t start engaging when they arrive in Chicago—they continue conversations they initiated months earlier. By doing this, they transform the often-hectic rush of introductions into opportunities for deepening relationships and advancing meaningful scientific discussions.

Start by understanding your network’s current state

Pharma companies often underestimate the strength of their existing KOL networks. The challenge isn’t a lack of relationships—it’s that these connections are frequently siloed:

• Clinical operations maintain ties with principal investigators.
• Medical affairs manage advisory board contacts.
• Commercial teams cultivate their own thought-leader relationships.

When we work with clients to prepare for ASCO, we often start by helping them discover just how rich their existing network actually is.

When we work with clients, a common first step is consolidating and assessing their current network. For example, a global oncology company preparing for ASCO and EHA thought it needed to establish entirely new connections with several KOLs. However, after centralizing its contact information in Health Expert Connect™, it discovered it already had relationships with many of its target KOLs. This insight shifted its focus from introductions to relationship-deepening strategies.

Turn your data into relationships

Having contact information isn't the same as having a relationship—you need the context behind each connection to build meaningful engagements.

To prepare for ASCO, we guide teams through enriching their KOL data by uncovering:

• Research interests and publications — Knowing what a KOL is publishing about helps tailor your approach. For instance, if an investigator focuses on biomarker-driven treatment selection, you can ensure they know about your related presentations.
  
  
• Clinical trial involvement — Current involvement in your trials offers natural conversation starters. Investigators actively enrolling patients will have different priorities than those who might join future studies.
  
  
• Previous interactions — Insights you gathered from past congresses—like questions asked at an investigator dinner or feedback on trial designs—can guide more personalized engagements.

Health Expert Connect™ simplifies this process by consolidating data from multiple sources and making it actionable through segmentation and outreach capabilities, enabling you to craft personalized communications at scale.

Start the conversation early

The weeks leading up to ASCO are a prime opportunity: Oncology thought leaders are already planning their schedules, making this the ideal time for personalized outreach.

Here’s how one of our clients used Health Expert Connect™ to transform their pre-ASCO engagement:

• Principal investigators received previews of data from their specific trials.
  
  
• Advisory board members were updated on how their feedback shaped research directions.
  
  
• Rising stars in specific tumor types got personalized invitations to scientific exchange sessions.

The key is making each interaction meaningful, which, despite the many communications KOLs get, is exceptionally rare. Most outreach is impersonal.  When you reach out to a KOL before ASCO, you're not just securing a meeting—you're starting a scientific dialogue that will continue at the conference and beyond. Treat it with this level of importance!

Here are a few specific outreach motions to consider:

• Send personalized invitations to your events or booth. These invitations should clearly communicate the value proposition for the KOL—why should they take time out of their busy congress schedule to engage with you?
  
  
• Share previews of data or presentations you'll be featuring. This can pique the KOL's interest and prime them for more in-depth discussions at the congress.
  
  
• Offer to schedule one-on-one meetings in advance. Many KOLs have packed schedules during congresses, so securing time slots early can ensure you don't miss out on important face-to-face interactions.

Making scaled outreach more efficient

It's simply impractical to manually engage hundreds of KOLs, but losing personalization undermines the effectiveness of each message. Tools like Health Expert Connect™ help teams scale their outreach without compromising quality. By integrating details like research interests or previous interactions into templates, you can send messages that feel personal—even at scale.

This ensures your communications stand out in inboxes flooded with generic, low-quality messages.

3. Plan your presence

Navigating ASCO’s scale can be the difference between an exhausting conference and one that energizes your team. With McCormick Place—one of the largest convention centers in North America—buzzing with activity, success requires a strategic approach to both your physical and digital presence.

Making the most of McCormick Place

A typical day at ASCO might look like this:

Without careful planning, this complexity can overwhelm even seasoned teams. Instead of trying to be everywhere at once, one of our clients used Health Expert Connect™ to create precision-targeted schedules. Their Chief Medical Officer followed an orchestrated plan that maximized meaningful interactions while minimizing wasted transit time.

“When you have a thousand people you'd like to connect with but only ten staff members to make it happen, success comes from being strategic about every minute.”

— Amy Ravi, CEO, ExtendMed

Schedule intelligently

Traditional scheduling approaches often break down at ASCO's scale. That's why modern teams are moving beyond basic calendar management to implement intelligent scheduling systems. 

ExtendMed’s Health Expert Connect™ platform simplifies the scheduling process with Calendly integration, enhances communication with automated reminders via email, text and WhatsApp, and sets calendar appointments for 1:1 meetings, poster sessions, presentations and dinner events.

Create multiple touchpoints for engagement

Success at ASCO isn't just about scheduling one-on-one meetings. The most effective teams create multiple ways for KOLs to engage with them. 

Here’s how we helped a recent client implement a layered engagement program:

A system that can track engagement across all of these touchpoints is key to making them work together. Through Health Expert Connect™, teams can see not only who attended which events but also what insights were gathered and what follow-up is needed.

Manage your team

Your team is your most valuable resource at ASCO, and their time must be optimized. Successful companies approach team deployment as a strategic exercise rather than a tactical one.

For example, we recently helped a client modernize its booth staffing model. Instead of assigning senior scientists hours of booth duty, they used Health Expert Connect™ to dynamically summon relevant team members when high-priority KOLs checked in nearby. This approach extended beyond the booth. By understanding which team members had the expertise or relationships most relevant to specific KOLs, the client ensured that every interaction advanced their objectives.

4. Execute at the event

Even the most meticulous plans must adapt to the organized chaos of ASCO: thousands of oncology professionals moving between sessions, unexpected opportunities arising and countless valuable conversations happening simultaneously. 

Success during these intense days requires a combination of strategic focus and tactical agility.

Capturing insights in real time

Think about how many insights your team can encounter in just one hour at ASCO. A team member might discuss biomarker strategies with a key investigator, hear unexpected feedback on a competitor’s data and learn about emerging treatment patterns from a rising star. Without a systematic approach to capturing these insights, critical information can be lost in the whirlwind.

ExtendMed’s Health Expert Connect™ platform monitors event participation, tracks check-ins and attendance and summarizes valuable insights in real time with recorded transcripts, survey results and active discussion board summaries.

Rather than relying on end-of-day debriefs—where details often fade—clients using Health Expert Connect™ document key takeaways immediately after interactions. The platform’s structured templates make this process quick and unobtrusive while ensuring the most important elements are captured.

This real-time capture provides three key benefits:

1. It prevents loss of critical insights amid the flurry of activity.
2. It enables the broader team to access information immediately, adjusting conversations and priorities on the fly.
3. It creates a rich database of interactions invaluable for post-ASCO follow-up and planning.

Coordinating with your team in real time

Managing a team across McCormick Place requires seamless coordination. When a key KOL unexpectedly appears at your booth or a session runs long, your team needs to adapt quickly to capitalize on opportunities.

One client’s team used Health Expert Connect™'s secure messaging platform to stay in sync throughout ASCO. For instance, when their medical director had a surprise chance to meet with a prominent investigator, the platform helped identify which team members needed to join and adjust schedules accordingly. What could have been a brief encounter turned into a meaningful scientific discussion.

Additionally, the platform tracks progress against objectives in real time, allowing teams to see how they’re performing on metrics like KOL meetings and insight gathering. This visibility enables mid-course corrections to ensure no objectives are left unmet.

Making every interaction count

Time is the scarcest resource at ASCO. Every interaction—scheduled or impromptu—needs to move your objectives forward. Successful teams approach each interaction with three questions:

• What do we already know about this KOL's interests and previous interactions?
• What specific insights or outcomes would make this interaction valuable?
• What next steps would advance this relationship meaningfully?

Health Expert Connect™ helps teams answer these questions quickly by providing immediate access to KOL profiles, interaction histories and relevant context. When a team member enters a conversation, they have the background they need to make it meaningful, along with clear documentation of any previous commitments or follow-up items.

Managing compliance

ASCO’s scale makes compliance tracking especially challenging. Between investigator dinners, one-on-one meetings and impromptu interactions, teams must accurately log value transfers while maintaining a focus on scientific exchange.

For one biopharma client, Health Expert Connect™ streamlined compliance by enabling real-time documentation of event attendance, meal benefits and interaction details. This approach ensured compliance accuracy without detracting from the substance of their KOL engagements.

ExtendMed’s Health Expert Connect™ platform monitors event participation, tracks check-ins and attendance and summarizes valuable insights in real time with recorded transcripts, survey results and active discussion board summaries.

“No matter how carefully you plan, ASCO will present unexpected challenges and opportunities. The key is having systems in place that help you adapt without losing sight of your strategic objectives.

For instance, if you discover that several key investigators are particularly interested in a specific aspect of their data, you can use Health Expert Connect™ to quickly organize an impromptu scientific exchange session, bringing together the right experts and team members for a focused discussion.”

— Amy Ravi, CEO, ExtendMed

5. Follow through effectively

The true value of ASCO emerges not during the conference but in the weeks and months that follow. While leaving McCormick Place may feel like a conclusion, the most successful organizations understand that ASCO is just one chapter in their ongoing dialogue with the oncology community. Turning conference interactions into lasting value requires thoughtful and immediate follow-through.

The critical first 48 hours

Post-conference, teams often return with memories of dozens of conversations, commitments for follow-up and potential opportunities. Without immediate action, these insights can fade, and the momentum generated at ASCO can dissipate.

Successful teams treat the first 48 hours after ASCO with the same urgency as the event itself. Within two days, a structured virtual debrief allows team members to review real-time notes from every interaction. This creates a comprehensive picture of the conference’s outcomes while memories are still fresh.

This immediate debrief serves multiple purposes:

• First, it helps identify the most pressing follow-up actions before urgency faded.
• Second, it allows the team to spot patterns and themes across different conversations that might not have been apparent during the conference. 
• Third, it creates a clear record of commitments made and opportunities identified, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

The critical first 48 hours

Post-conference, teams often return with memories of dozens of conversations, commitments for follow-up and potential opportunities. Without immediate action, these insights can fade, and the momentum generated at ASCO can dissipate.

Successful teams treat the first 48 hours after ASCO with the same urgency as the event itself. Within two days, a structured virtual debrief allows team members to review real-time notes from every interaction. This creates a comprehensive picture of the conference’s outcomes while memories are still fresh.

This immediate debrief serves multiple purposes:

• First, it helps identify the most pressing follow-up actions before urgency faded.
• Second, it allows the team to spot patterns and themes across different conversations that might not have been apparent during the conference. 
• Third, it creates a clear record of commitments made and opportunities identified, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

Convert your insights into actions

The insights gathered during ASCO carry tremendous potential value, but only if they reach the right people within your organization. Consider the variety of information your team collects: 

• Feedback on clinical trial designs
• Perspectives on treatment patterns
• Reactions to new data

Each piece of information might be relevant to different internal stakeholders.Health Expert Connect™ simplifies this process through targeted reporting capabilities, enabling teams to create summaries tailored to specific audiences. For example:

• Clinical teams receive investigator feedback on trial protocols.
• Medical affairs teams review scientific exchange priorities.

If, for instance, multiple investigators express concerns about a trial endpoint, the platform helps compile relevant feedback and share it with the clinical development team. This rapid information flow allows proactive responses, boosting investigator confidence.

Maintain relationship momentum

ASCO creates unique opportunities for relationship building, but these new connections require nurturing to grow into meaningful long-term partnerships. The most successful companies approach post-ASCO follow-up as a strategic process rather than a series of isolated tasks.

Instead of sending generic follow-up emails, our clients use Health Expert Connect™ to create personalized communication plans for different KOL segments. Investigators who expressed interest in specific data receive detailed follow-up information about those topics. KOLs who suggest potential collaboration opportunities receive concrete proposals for the next steps. Each interaction builds naturally on conversations that began at ASCO.

The platform also helps teams track the progression of these relationships over time. By maintaining a clear record of every interaction, commitment and follow-up action, teams can ensure they're moving each relationship forward purposefully.

Manage complex follow-ups at scale

The sheer volume of post-ASCO follow-up activities can overwhelm traditional management approaches. A successful conference might generate hundreds of follow-up items, each requiring specific actions and tracking. Without proper systems, important opportunities can slip away amid competing priorities.

Health Expert Connect™ helps teams manage this complexity through automated workflow tools. The platform can:

• Generate personalized follow-up emails based on interaction types
• Track completion of promised follow-up items
• Alert team members about approaching deadlines
• Monitor relationship progression against defined objectives

This automation ensures nothing is overlooked while allowing your team to focus on the substance of their follow-up rather than its mechanics.

Measure and learn from your ASCO investment

Understanding the true impact of your ASCO participation requires sophisticated measurement. Modern teams look beyond simple metrics like the number of meetings held to assess how conference interactions influence their broader objectives.

Through Health Expert Connect™, teams can track multiple dimensions of ASCO impact:

• Progression of KOL relationships from initial contact to active collaboration
• Implementation of insights gathered during the conference
• Conversion of scientific exchange opportunities into concrete projects
• Return on investment for different types of engagement activities

This comprehensive measurement approach helps teams refine their congress strategy over time, ensuring each year's participation builds on lessons learned from previous experiences.

Final thoughts and next steps

As we look ahead to ASCO 2025, success at oncology's premier conference increasingly depends on sophisticated engagement strategies powered by modern technology. The days of relying solely on booth presence and chance encounters have given way to an era where meaningful scientific exchange requires careful orchestration, from the first pre-conference outreach through post-event relationship building.

Implementing the strategies we discuss in this guide can be challenging without the right support and technology. That's where ExtendMed's Health Expert Connect™ platform comes in. Our comprehensive, compliant solution is designed to address the common challenges pharmaceutical teams face in congress planning and KOL engagement.

Health Expert Connect™ offers a unified approach to congress planning, helping you:

• Efficiently consolidate and manage multiple lists of healthcare professionals.
• Streamline scheduling processes with integrated calendar syncing and automated reminders.
• Track attendance and gather real-time insights during events.
• Manage compliance reporting and expense allocation.
• Facilitate ongoing engagement with KOLs before, during and after the congress.

Our platform has been used by global pharmaceutical companies at major conferences like ASCO and EHA to help them coordinate complex engagement programs involving dinner receptions, one-on-one meetings and interactive poster sessions.

By partnering with ExtendMed, you can elevate your congress planning experience, optimize the value of your KOL interactions and ensure that the insights gathered during these events are effectively shared and integrated into your broader strategies.

Don't let the complexities of congress planning hinder your mission to advance clinical research and promote your products. With ExtendMed's Health Expert Connect™ platform, you can transform your approach to congress engagement, creating more meaningful connections with KOLs and maximizing the return on your congress investment.

Ready to transform your ASCO strategy? Contact us to learn how we can help you make ASCO 2025 your most successful congress yet.