SFE Europe 2009 LIVE..almost

I am lucky enough to be out in Barcelona at the moment, blogging and twittering from our 7th SFE Europe conference.

By Alexandra Uprichard on Mar 3, 2009

I am lucky enough to be out in Barcelona at the moment, blogging and twittering from our 7th SFE Europe conference. The conference is hosted in the beautiful Hotel Rey Juan Carlos, originally built to house the 1992 Olympic Committee. Other than that illustrious occasion, the hotel must never have housed such an array of executives as it does today!

So far, we have had an intro from Roland Powell (a former European director of sales and marketing capabilities at Eli Lilly) who posed some interesting questions about whether the industry is using its resources efficiently.

Following on from this Huw Tippett (Head of Global Sales- Novartis) took to task the new era in healthcare, and discussed the new commercial models that are being implemented. He offered some fresh insights about looking outside of pharma for examples of 'best practice,' and the requirement for different tools to be employed in different regions. Furthermore, he elaborated on the Novartis approach, describing how customer prosperity needs to be at the heart of any KAM strategy.

Reinhard Angelmar of INSEAD then talked to delegates about patient empowerment and how pharma companies can utilise this rather than be threatened by it. He emphatically outlined how patient empowerment lies at the basis of modern healthcare systems. Plus he demonstrated how the patient is increasingly controlling the drugs that come to market.

Finally, the tricky pre lunch slot was filled with the engaging Leandro Herrero. He offered his view on how the industry can start to reinvent itself offering to the point directions such as 'if you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do,' and 'find all your sacred cows...and then shoot them.' The idea that pharma companies need to identify and support key talent to champion new ways of operating was integral to the presentation.

Now our 550 delegates are enjoying a networking lunch, and the more dedicated amongst them have headed to the Agnitio Workshop, hosted by president Morten Hjelmso.

If you want to read the live feeds coming from this afternoon's session, which includes a panel discussion on the select conference held yesterday 'Selling Pharmaceuticals in 2015,' go to
https://www.reutersevents.com/pharma/sales/sfe-europe-live

You can even send in a question for one of our speakers, who this afternooon will include Dale Hagemeyer (Research Vice President- Gartner), John Stephens (Team Leader in Sales Force Support Global Strategy and Marketing Operations- Merck), and Michael W Thomas (Principle- A.T. Kearney)

Let's get interactive readers!