What is Partnering?

This page explains a little about the process (part A) and more importantly purpose (part B) of partnering at BioTrinity.

Partnering at partnering conferences refers to the practice of organising face-to-face meetings between two companies, at a specified time and in a specified location (usually a numbered meeting table in a specific room. BioTrinity is unusual in using private rooms for each meeting. Partnering also used to mean a joint venture involving two or more businesses, working together for mutual benefit, rather than as buyers or sellers of services.

Visual Guide to the Process of Partnering at BioTrinity 2010 (part A)

In this brief introduction to using the online partnering system at BioTrinity, the aim is to allow the delegate to understand how to partner with companies they wish to meet. The process is one of mutual consent to a meeting: for a meeting to be scheduled, first one user, the protagonist, requests a meeting with the other. The other user is the recipient of the meeting request, and they must accept or politely decline that request. In the first screen below, the user completes their company profile, which in this case we call a partnering profile. It can contain many facets of information which the recipient of your meeting request may evaluate before granting you a one-to-one meeting, such as your own personal profile, a profile of your company's products, in and out-licensing interests, financing rounds and a management profile.

In the second screen below, the user complete the essential second stage of the process - marking off the periods of time during which they are available for meetings with other delegates. Once two parties have agreed to meet, the partnering system schedules their meeting in to a half-hour period when both have marked themselves as available.

In the third screen, we illustrate one of the simplest methods of using the partnering system is to look at the list of companies attending using the "A-Z Companies" option. In the example below, I clicked "S" and then searched for SR One's profile by scrolling up and down. This is a foolproof method of finding a company, whereas the text-based search can let you down with typos or spelling errors.

In the fourth screen, the user is requesting a meeting with one of the delegates from SR One, and is addressing that delegate directly in a personalized message. Taking the time to address each and every person with which you want to meet with at least an effort at describing the value of the meeting will yield far better results than bland generic requests. After sending the request, the user must login regularly to check requests that they may receive, and monitor progress of their requests.

In the fifth screen, the user has taken a different search strategy and is searching for particular molecules. Explore the partnering system, and include as much information as possible, and use all the alternative words for your technology (eg. cns, central nervous system, alzheimers and neurology) - it will be as fruitful as the effort you put into it. You can always Contact the Partnering Desk for support in using the partnering system.

The purpose and practicality of partnering (part B)

Partnering meetings are often arranged many weeks in advance, and the most attractive companies' available meeting slots at partnering conferences are often filled up a long time in advance so timing is crucial.

The most successful participants engaging in partnering are proactive businesses who prepare thoroughly for private meetings with potential business partners before attending the conference. These proactive businesses invest time and energy to identify target companies which they believe their companies might benefit from meeting face-to-face. Proactive companies also use partnering meetings as a platform to renew contact and strengthen their relationships with existing clients or business partners.

Once delegates have registered for BioTrinity 2010 they can submit a detailed company profile and also read other company profiles in order to research partnering opportunities with companies attending BioTrinity. The purpose is to find the most appropriate business partners, alliances, customers, suppliers, and even investors. A partnering meeting is an intense opportunity to get to know other companies, and should be prepared for in depth.

Around 6 weeks prior to BioTrinity, registered delegates can use the web-based partnering system to request private meetings with their target company, which once agreed by the target company delegate, leads to the booking of a meeting space and a 30 minute time slot for each such confirmed one-to-one meeting. The system is partially automated, but there are dedicated support staff working behind the scenes to ensure as many meetings take place as possible.

The partnering system we are using at BioTrinity is provided as a service to our delegates by EBD Group, who also manage partnering at BIO-Europe - we believe EBD offers the global gold-standard service for partnering meetings.

Now its up to you!