As we head into one of the biggest bun fights of the year at the BIO convention in Philadelphia, hopes are high for new learning and links, seeing and being seen, and warming up or booking business. Attendance at BIO, BIO Europe, Medica, ASCO and the like is important to annual marketing efforts. But there’s a risk that too many rely too heavily on them to build their reach, reputation and business internationally.
To get noticed and build connections in targeted markets, you might also, or alternatively, “knock-on-doors” or issue press releases that may or may not get picked up by the trade press or, better yet, by major media outlets. While this can bear fruit, getting to decision makers in the US and elsewhere is challenging and expensive but critical.
Since my time leading the British Consular system’s efforts in the US on biotech, I’ve known that participants in this space should be international from the start, because good ideas and many customers (especially in science) know no boundaries, and competitors may well make productive collaborators.
It is not an idle boast that the BELS community covers a vast majority of important life science organisations across the globe. Given their seniority, influence and warm feelings towards the UK, the BELS List is very much a golden goose. Spanning some 1300 organisations across 43 countries, it is a treasure trove of connections and receptive minds, and the BELS team serves as a connector to them.
We are also fertilising the ground for the UK by establishing trusted relationships and disseminating a popular news flow to position the UK as:
- a global hub abuzz with scientific innovation and business productivity, and
- the most influential life science cluster after Massachusetts and California
BELS is a real gem in the UK arsenal. Support our efforts and work with us.
NOTE: BELS/British Expats in Life Sciences is an established, acknowledged, strategic community forging stronger ties between 3,000 highly-accomplished, influential, British-educated health and life science leaders working abroad and those in this important UK sector.