Rethinking pharma events: Insights from PharmaForum

Our Head of Pharma Growth, Vicky Fraser, shares her insights from PharmaForum in Boston, MA.

Having been home from PharmaForum (Boston, MA) for a few weeks, I’ve had time to reflect on my experiences, and one thing is clear: the role of events is being re-examined by the pharmaceutical industry. It’s something I heard consistently in my conversations with leaders across meetings, events and procurement: there is now a far greater focus on impact, defensibility and value when planning events.

Events are being judged on impact, not activity. Across multiple sessions at PharmaForum, I saw clear pressure on teams to justify the purpose and outcome of events. Return on investment (ROI), engagement and memory are now considered more important than size, scale or production value. Events are being evaluated as investments, rather than outputs.

Procurement is shaping decisions earlier. Another recurring theme at PharmaForum was the earlier and stronger influence of procurement in event planning. Conversations have moved beyond cost to include value, defensibility and risk. Pharma wants to work with partners who understand the broader context around compliance, industry uncertainty and pressure on teams.

Uncertainty is driving smarter choices. Many attendees expressed to me that they feel they’re operating in a high-uncertainty environment. Tighter budgets, rising costs, shorter lead times and external pressures such as travel inflation and geopolitics all contribute to the pressure, and teams are being forced to make more intentional decisions around destination, duration and where investment in experience design truly matters.

Healthcare professionals’ expectations have shifted. I heard repeatedly that while HCPs’ appetite for medical education is still strong, they are very time-poor. Solutions discussed include smaller meetings, optional virtual access, and formats that build community and relevance. HCPs value the quality of the experience and the educational outcomes more than frequency or scale.

Creativity and AI can work together, alongside compliance. There is growing openness to experience-led events that respect compliance considerations, particularly when they support learning and understanding rather than spectacle for its own sake. AI was, as always, a hot topic, but it has moved beyond being considered a competitive advantage and now is an efficiency baseline for many teams. Governance, data quality and human judgement are still front-of-mind.

Finally, events are now an enterprise asset. Something I noticed at the forum was the way meetings and events are now viewed as portfolio-level assets, not isolated tick-box activities. There is an increasing emphasis on data, forecasting and intelligence that enables better decisions over time and strategic improvement of event design, rather than the retrospective reporting that has always been done.

I found that PharmaForum reinforced what I’ve been hearing from clients and KOLs: events are now about doing what is defensible, effective and genuinely valuable. The opportunity now is to do what Strata does best: support our clients in their mission, by designing meetings and events that are easier to justify internally, harder to challenge externally and more meaningful for attendees. I can’t wait to attend the next event!

Vicky Fraser is Head of Pharma Growth at Strata Creative Communications. She’s a pharma and healthcare events strategist with more than 20 years of sector experience and is passionate about strategic scientific storytelling that connects.