Pharma Congress Strategy in 2025: How to Engage Thought Leaders at Annual Meetings

Medical congresses should be goldmines for KOL engagement and scientific exchange.

Yet, too often, companies invest heavily in premium booth space and executive time only to leave feeling they've barely scratched the surface of what was possible. They wish they had planned their time better. They wish they had connected with more experts. They wish they had left feeling more accomplished about a specific goal.

Having helped many firms with congress strategy and execution, the difference between average and exceptional congress outcomes almost always boils down to three critical elements:

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

This guide distills our experience helping pharmaceutical companies improve their approach to congress engagement and fully capitalize on its opportunities. Whether you're preparing for ASCO, EHA, or other national meetings, you'll find practical strategies to maximize every minute of your investment. These practices also apply to large conferences.

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

• Consolidates and manages multiple lists of healthcare professionals.
• Streamlines scheduling with integrated calendar syncing and automated reminders.
• Tracks attendance and gathers real-time insights during events.
• Manages compliance reporting and expense allocation.
• Facilitates ongoing engagement before, during and after the congress.

Head to our solutions page to learn more about our platform, and watch the brief demo below 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.

Read our case study to see how we recently partnered with a global oncology-focused biopharma company and its medical communications agency to optimize engagement with KOLs during two major conferences, ASCO and EHA.

Using a tailored instance of ExtendMed's Health Expert Connect™ platform, the team tackled logistical challenges such as coordinating the schedules of 1,600 Principal Investigators and managing 1:1 meetings, dinner receptions and poster sessions.

1. Strengthening your pre-event prep

We see this situation all the time: A team invests months preparing for a congress. They have world-class data to present, a premium booth location and top executives who have cleared their calendars.

But in the months before the event, they find themselves wrestling with fragmented lists of thought leaders they want to engage with, dealing with conflicting schedules and worrying about mounting compliance concerns they wish they’d considered sooner.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Even the most sophisticated pharma teams struggle to plan ahead of a congress event. Here's how to avoid the most common pitfalls at the earliest planning stages.

Consolidate and segment your KOL lists

Success at any congress hinges on engaging the right experts. But again, most teams start at a disadvantage, with their KOL information scattered across clinical trial databases, CRM systems, past congress attendance records and advisory board rosters.

The first step is consolidating these disparate lists into a single, comprehensive database. Since manual consolidation can be time-consuming and error-prone, many teams use specialized platforms like Health Expert Connect™ as it:

• Accepts data in common formats (CSV, Excel, etc.)
• Cleans and standardizes the information
• Prepares the data for segmentation
• Stores the data in a central location

Once those lists are consolidated, the next step is to segment that now cleaned and centralized list. Proper segmentation lets you personalize your engagement strategies and target stakeholders with appropriate messages before the event.

In the context of a congress, we typically help our clients segment their lists based on criteria like:

• Tier (e.g., Tier 1, 2, 3 KOLs)
• Therapeutic specialization
• Geographic location
• Previous engagement history
• Specific clinical trials they're involved in

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

A simple tagging system lets our clients designate their segments however they’d like — and then send mass communications to segmented groups rather than what we find most teams doing now: sending individual emails one by one — a manual process that’s not just slow and tedious, but invites human errors that confuse and frustrate the people you’re looking to impress from day one.

“We recently worked with a global oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company to optimize their engagement strategy for the ASCO conference. They needed to effectively manage a list of 1,600 principal investigators who were set to attend both the ASCO conference in the US and the EHA conference in Europe.

We worked with their advisory council and medical affairs team to compile lists of these global investigators. Then, using our Health Expert Connect™ platform, we segmented those lists into 22 targeted communities for engagement based on the specific clinical trials each investigator was involved in. This targeted approach ensured every interaction was relevant to the individual KOL's research focus rather than using generic messaging. 

Personalization is how companies stand out in the inbox when thought leaders are flooded with requests for their time and attention. When sending invitations to hundreds or over a thousand principal investigators across all your studies, you don't want to send out individual emails. You need an email solution where you can efficiently send to a whole list based on whatever tags define them as the right group — whether that's tier one stakeholders, tier two stakeholders, etcetera.”

— Amy Ravi, CEO, ExtendMed

Set clear objectives and KPIs

Before getting deeper into the logistics for a particular event, teams need to step back to define what success will look like for their participation so they can orient their strategy to reach those specific goals. "How many KOLs did we meet?" is no longer enough. Today's congress investments demand sophisticated success metrics that combine quantitative and qualitative measures.

Here are a few metrics we help teams measure—often for the first time:

• Meeting/event attendance
• Insights from poster sessions and presentations (via QR codes)
• Check-ins and attendance
• Compliance-related information (like meal benefits)
• Group meal expense distribution among attendees

And here are a few examples of how we map specific metrics to congress-related activities:

• For poster sessions and presentations, we use QR codes at poster sessions to enable people to answer questions about study results.
  
  
• For tracking attendance/compliance, we measure event participation, check-ins and attendance.
  
  
• We also handle meal benefits tracking for evenly distributing expenses among attendees.

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.

"We helped our global oncology client gather specific insights from 50 key investigators instead of targeting maximum booth traffic. That directly shaped their product positioning strategy. You have to be really clear about what success looks like beyond just counting meetings."

— Amy Ravi, CEO, ExtendMed
 

Leverage technology for seamless event management

Heading into 2025, using modern technology for event planning isn't optional—it's essential if you intend to be efficient. A comprehensive congress planning platform like Health Expert Connect™ can streamline both preparation and execution, saving time while minimizing errors.

When evaluating planning platforms, look for these key features:

• Integrated scheduling with calendar syncing: This allows for real-time updates on availability and automatic appointment rescheduling, optimizing the limited time at the event.
  
  
• Automated invitation and reminder systems: These can send segmented invitations at scale and provide automated reminders via email, text and even WhatsApp.
  
  
• Real-time attendance tracking: This helps you monitor event participation and track check-ins for various events.
  
  
• Compliance management tools: These are crucial for efficiently managing Sunshine reporting and expense management, such as evenly distributing group meal expenses among attendees.

ExtendMed’s Health Expert Connect™ platform handles Sunshine reporting and expense management with integrated features, such as evenly distributing group meal expenses among attendees.

At ExtendMed, we've developed Health Expert Connect™ to offer all of these features in a unified system. This reduces the need for multiple disparate tools, an advantage that’s particularly valuable in managing complex congress planning scenarios.

For the ASCO and EHA congress projects we mentioned earlier, we customized our platform to enable our biopharma client to engage with investigators in three ways:

1. Dinner reception programs
2. One-on-one meetings
3. Poster presentation sessions

With a dedicated platform to orchestrate your activities, you can also automate many of the time-consuming administrative tasks associated with congress planning. This unlocks a whole new level of administrative efficiency, reduces the risk of errors, and ensures compliance with reporting requirements.

2. Optimizing your onsite presence

National congresses remain among the best opportunities to connect with thought leaders and other stakeholders, yet many teams feel they don’t maximize their time when they’re onsite at the event. Every team member's presence should meaningfully contribute to your objectives.

Here's a look inside our playbook to optimize your event time.

Strategically allocate your resources at the event

Congress engagement is about making the most of your limited time and resources. With thousands of HCPs in attendance and numerous sessions—some happening simultaneously—it's critical to plan out each block of time as thoughtfully as possible.

In our experience, the key here is diligent scheduling, which, again, requires dedicated tooling to be done correctly.

For instance, when we worked with one of our biopharma clients for ASCO and EHA, we helped them build separate, full schedules for their CEO, Chief Medical Officer, and other key team members. Each person attended critical sessions and met with high-priority KOLs, making sure each minute of the event day was well-spent.

Here’s how we suggest approaching this for your next event:

1. Assign team members to specific sessions or stakeholder meetings based on their areas of expertise. This ensures that you have the right people in the right places to gather relevant insights and engage effectively with KOLs.
   
   
2. Use internal resource management tools to track and optimize team schedules. This allows you to see, at a glance, where each team member is supposed to be and helps avoid conflicts or overlaps.
   
   
3. Balance booth duties with KOL meetings and scientific sessions. While your booth is an important part of your congress presence, it shouldn't come at the expense of valuable face-to-face time with key stakeholders or missing critical data presentations. Whenever possible, bring enough of the team so the booth can be staffed without sacrificing opportunities elsewhere at the event.

Consider how we helped one pharma team transform their ASCO approach: Instead of targeting maximum booth traffic, we had them gather specific market insights from 50 key investigators. These focused discussions directly shaped their product positioning strategy. Remember, success isn't about how many conversations you have—it's about having the right conversations with the right experts about the right topics.

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.

"Imagine you have four thousand people you'd like to connect with at a congress but only ten staff members to make it happen. That's challenging. But, by narrowing your focus to the top 500 priority contacts—and using a platform that enables seamless invitations and scheduling—you gain a huge strategic advantage in terms of how you use your time.

Health Expert Connect™ lets you book meetings in half-hour increments, helping you see more people during the event. Add in dinner meetings and post-event gatherings, and suddenly, you're able to make far more connections and capitalize on every opportunity in a way that's very difficult to do when everything is managed through spreadsheets, documents, and emails alone."

— Amy Ravi, CEO, ExtendMed

Prepare your team with key messages and data

Booking interactions is just the first step. Your team must be thoroughly prepared to maximize each engagement so that it is fruitful and drives toward your goals. Every team member should master your latest data and key messages and be ready for potential questions or challenges from KOLs and attendees.

We’ve seen that comprehensive pre-congress briefings significantly enhance event interactions, especially when presenting new data or launching products.

• First, we suggest conducting internal briefings on the latest data and key messages. Make sure everyone on the team understands the significance of your recent findings and how they fit into the broader context of your research or product portfolio.
  
  
• Second, provide your team members with easy access to relevant materials. This might include recent publications, trial data, product information and any other resources they might need to reference during conversations with KOLs.
  
  
• Third, role-play potential KOL interactions and questions. This can help your team feel more comfortable and confident in their interactions, especially when discussing complex or sensitive topics.

Our clients accomplish all three of these steps through Health Expert Connect™, which makes it easy to manage and distribute the latest materials for convenient access before, during and after an event. 

Use modern communication channels

When time management is critical during an event, communication shouldn’t slow you down. Teams that equip themselves with an event management platform share information and coordinate in real time. Many people today expect to be able to communicate through modern means at these events.

Here are some ways you can use technology to improve communication at a congress:

• Use secure messaging apps for real-time team communication. This allows team members to share insights quickly, coordinate meeting changes, or ask for support when needed.
  
  
• Implement QR codes for quick access to digital materials. This can be particularly useful for poster sessions or booth presentations, allowing attendees to easily access more detailed information.
  
  
• Utilize social media to amplify your presence (within compliance guidelines). While you need to be careful about what you share due to regulatory constraints, social media can be a powerful tool for increasing your visibility at the congress.

Also, consider using tools that allow for real-time insight gathering. For instance, at ASCO, we helped a client implement a system where attendees could scan QR codes to answer questions about live presentations, providing valuable real-time insights.

3. Connecting with KOLs through multiple touchpoints

Companies' engagement with KOLs has evolved significantly over the past few years; relying on chance encounters or last-minute scheduling is no longer enough. 

Here are a few insights on how to create a comprehensive KOL engagement strategy that begins well before the congress and continues through various touchpoints during the event.

Conduct pre-congress outreach

Engaging KOLs should start long before you set foot in the congress venue. Pre-congress outreach is crucial for setting the stage for productive interactions during the event. It's about creating anticipation, demonstrating value and ensuring your company is on the KOL's radar amidst the sea of information and invitations they receive.

We've found that a strategic, personalized approach to pre-congress outreach can significantly increase the likelihood of meaningful engagements during the event. 

Here's how we suggest approaching this:

• 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.

Again, the right tooling makes all the difference here. For instance, our platform allows companies to send segmented, personalized invitations at scale rather than relying on individual emails. This saves time and ensures consistency in messaging while maintaining a personal touch.

Offer multiple ways to engage

Different KOLs have different preferences and availability, so setting up a one-size-fits-all approach to how your targets can engage with you is rarely effective.

Here are some key engagement opportunities to consider:

• One-on-one meetings: These are still often the most valuable interactions. Use a scheduling system that allows KOLs to book convenient time slots and prepare tailored agendas based on each KOL's interests and expertise.
  
  
• Dinner receptions: Hosting intimate dinners is excellent for more in-depth discussions, relationship-building and gathering informal insights. As we mentioned earlier, however, keep the size manageable.
  
  
• Interactive poster sessions: Implement QR codes for digital poster access and collect real-time feedback and questions through a mobile app. This will make your posters more accessible and provide valuable KOL interest and reaction data.
  
  
• Scientific presentations: Invite KOLs to attend or participate in your presentations. Offer follow-up discussions or Q&A sessions to delve deeper into the presented data.

At ASCO and EHA, we helped one of our biopharma clients organize a comprehensive engagement program that included dinner receptions, 1:1 meetings and interactive poster sessions. The company's management team connected with KOLs in various settings, catering to different preferences and maximizing the value of each interaction.

Personalize your congress engagements

KOLs are inundated with information and requests for their time, so tailoring your interactions to their specific interests and expertise can set you apart and make your engagements more valuable for both parties.

We suggest reviewing your KOLs’ recent publications and presentations before meetings. This shows that you value their work and are interested in their specific research areas. Then, prepare specific questions or discussion points relevant to their work. This can lead to more engaging and productive conversations.

Also, be prepared to discuss how your products or research align with their interests. This isn't about pushing your agenda but finding genuine areas of mutual interest and potential collaboration.

When preparing for a 1:1 meeting with a KOL, we helped a client create a briefing document that included the expert’s basic information, a summary of their recent publications, key areas of interest and potential points of alignment with the company's research. As you might expect, showing up this prepared led to a highly productive meeting that sparked several follow-up collaborations.

4. Taking advantage of today’s tools for better engagement

While we’ve woven this theme throughout each area we just covered, it’s worth lingering on.

If the case for investing in engagement technology isn’t clear, here are just a few other ways our clients use platform capabilities to get more out of their event engagements.

Gather insights in real time

Technology significantly enhances one of the most valuable aspects of attending a congress: the opportunity to capture insights from KOLs and other attendees.

For example, our clients use our Health Expert Connect™ platform to log key takeaways from conversations. This ensures that valuable insights are captured immediately and can be easily shared with the wider team.

Our platform also allows for live polling during presentations, which provides immediate feedback. This engages the audience and provides valuable real-time data on how your information is being received.

We recently helped a client implement a system where team members could use our platform to quickly log insights after each KOL interaction. These insights were immediately available to the entire team, allowing for rapid adjustments to messaging or follow-up strategies as needed.

Create a virtual extension of your physical presence

While face-to-face interactions remain valuable, technology allows us to extend our reach beyond the physical walls of a conference center. This is particularly important for engaging with KOLs who may not be able to attend in person—or who you didn’t get to spend enough time with.

Health Expert Connect™ allows teams to set up digital hubs for congress-related content that KOLs can access before, during and after the event. This serves as a central repository for all your digital content, making it easy for KOLs to find and reference your information.

At a recent oncology congress, we helped a client set up a virtual meeting room where KOLs could book time slots to discuss the company's latest data with key scientists. This allowed for meaningful interactions with KOLs who couldn't attend the congress in person, significantly expanding the company's reach.

5. Driving impact with post-congress analysis and follow-up

The work doesn't end when the congress doors close. In fact, what you do after the congress can be just as critical as your activities during the event. Post-congress follow-up and analysis are crucial for maximizing the value of your participation and building long-term relationships with KOLs. 

Convene an immediate debrief

If not properly harnessed, the momentum generated during a congress can quickly dissipate. That's why conducting a team debrief immediately after the event is crucial. A debrief serves multiple purposes: It allows you to capture fresh insights, identify immediate follow-up actions and begin translating congress interactions into tangible outcomes.

In our experience supporting congresses, a structured debrief process can significantly enhance the value derived from congress participation. 

Here's what this might look like:

• First, conduct a team debrief immediately after the congress. This should involve all team members who participated in the event. The goal is to capture key learnings, notable interactions and potential opportunities while they're still fresh in everyone's minds.
  
  
• Next, compile and prioritize follow-up actions for each KOL interaction. This might include sending promised information, scheduling follow-up meetings, or involving the KOL in upcoming projects. Prioritization is key here; you want to focus your energy on the most promising opportunities.
  
  
• Finally, assign responsibilities and deadlines for follow-up tasks. Clear ownership and timelines are crucial for ensuring that follow-up actions don't fall through the cracks in the busy post-congress period.
  
  

Dive into your analytics

Analytics are crucial for understanding the true impact of your congress participation. This goes beyond just counting the number of booth visitors or meetings held. You must dive deep into the data to extract meaningful insights that inform your future strategies.

At ExtendMed, we've helped our clients implement robust analytics processes to measure the success of their congress participation. 

• Start by reviewing attendance data for your events and meetings. This gives you a quantitative measure of your reach at the congress. Look at not just the overall numbers but also the breakdown by KOL tier, specialization, or any other relevant segmentation.
  
  
• Next, analyze feedback collected through digital channels. This might include responses to live polls during presentations, feedback on digital posters, or comments on virtual sessions. This qualitative data can provide valuable insights into how your messages were received.
  
  
• Finally, assess your performance against the pre-defined KPIs you set before the congress. This allows you to objectively measure your congress strategy's success and identify improvement areas.
  
  

Integrate your data with any existing systems

The insights and relationships developed during a congress shouldn't exist in isolation. To maximize their value, they need to be integrated into your ongoing processes and systems. This ensures that the knowledge gained at the congress informs your broader strategies and that new relationships are nurtured over time.

We suggest updating your CRM systems with new contact information and interaction notes. This ensures that anyone in your organization who interacts with these KOLs in the future has access to the latest information.

Also, share key insights with relevant internal teams. For example, feedback on a new product concept might be valuable for your R&D team, while insights on treatment practices could inform your Medical Affairs strategies.

Use the gathered insights to inform your future engagement strategies and product development. The feedback and insights gained from KOLs at the congress can be invaluable in shaping your future direction.

• Start by reviewing attendance data for your events and meetings. This gives you a quantitative measure of your reach at the congress. Look at not just the overall numbers but also the breakdown by KOL tier, specialization, or any other relevant segmentation.
  
  
• Next, analyze feedback collected through digital channels. This might include responses to live polls during presentations, feedback on digital posters, or comments on virtual sessions. This qualitative data can provide valuable insights into how your messages were received.
  
  
• Finally, assess your performance against the pre-defined KPIs you set before the congress. This allows you to objectively measure your congress strategy's success and identify improvement areas.
  
  

Integrate your data with any existing systems

While a congress provides a great opportunity for initial engagement with KOLs, the real value comes from building long-term relationships. The connections made at the congress should be viewed as a springboard for ongoing collaboration and engagement.

Here's how you can nurture these relationships post-congress:

• Schedule follow-up meetings or calls with key KOLs. These should be personalized interactions that build on the conversations started at the congress.
  
  
• Share additional information or resources promised during conversations. This demonstrates your commitment to the relationship and provides value to the KOL.
  
  
• Consider involving high-value KOLs in future advisory boards or collaborative projects. This deepens the relationship and allows you to benefit from their expertise on an ongoing basis.
  
  

Final thoughts and next steps

As we move towards 2025, success at national congresses will increasingly depend on our ability to blend strategic planning, personalized engagement and innovative technology. The landscape of pharmaceutical congresses continues to evolve, presenting both challenges and opportunities for engaging with KOLs and PIs.

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 take your congress strategy to the next level? Contact us today to schedule a demo of Health Expert Connect™ and discover how we can help you optimize your congress planning and KOL engagement for 2025 and beyond.