Matt Dayman. Group Account Director, Notch
Since its humble beginnings in 1990 with 16 exhibitors and 250 delegates in a hall in Frankfurt, CPHI has grown into the leading international pharmaceutical industry events brand. In particular, its flagship Wordwide event (now positioned as CPHI + the host city, e.g. CPHI Barcelona in 2023), has been getting bigger and better every year. My colleague Ryan and I packed up our laptops and lanyards and headed to the home of the Liberty Bell to attend the show on behalf of Notch, from which we bring you the following insights:
This year’s event, CPHI Milan 2024, is predicted to be welcoming 62,000 visitors and over 2,400 exhibitors to the home of espresso, high fashion, and DaVinci’s “The Last Supper”. CPHI attendees no longer only get to experience the cultural highlights of Europe though, as its geographical reach has now expanded to nine countries. These include China, India, Korea, Saudi Arabia (a first for 2024), and, the subject of this blog, North America.
CPHI North America has been running since 2017, initially in collaboration with InformEx, the established fine and specialty chemical industry show, whose name has now been dropped.
A long-time native of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, the show has never quite hit the heights of its older European sibling.
However, despite its lower attendance and significance in the industry calendar, the event is still a great opportunity to catch-up with familiar faces and learn about the latest in the industry.
1. Do look up
Adam McKay’s 2021 satire Don’t Look Up highlighted the world’s indifference to the climate crisis. However, the pharmaceutical industry certainly isn’t taking this lightly, with the environment becoming a huge topic of conversation. In response, ‘Sustainability’ was added as a new conference track for this year’s show. During these sessions, attendees were able to learn from others what targets they should be setting, how to make actionable changes, and how sustainability can be built into procurement practices.
Programmes such as Energize—formed to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the pharmaceutical value chain—were also covered, alongside several insightful, real-word case studies.
2. Panic at the (silent) disco
For 2024, the two conference theatres were moved to the show floor, aiming to create a buzz amongst the booths. To facilitate this without having the speakers’ voices boom loudly over other conversations, attendees were required to download the CPHI app and use headphones to listen to the talks on their phones.
Overall, having the theatres on the show floor did add to the buzz, but the jury was out on the technology. In the main, it worked well, although there were some noticeable glitches during some of the talks we attended.
This was particularly apparent when speakers opened the floor up for questions, which may have put some delegates off raising their hands to contribute to the conversation. However, recordings of all presentations have since been added to the app, which enables attendees to listen back to any interesting talks they might have missed.
3. The future of Pharma
Other insightful sessions within the conference agenda included those on CDMO outsourcing trends, which highlighted the need to build resilience in supply chains by re-shoring or near-shoring manufacturing.
Excipients and their key contribution to drug efficacy and delivery were raised in several talks. The role of AI and digital technologies in opening avenues for improved care was also explored. In particular, the continued evolution of connected media and smart wearable devices that is making them more accessible and affordable to patients from all demographics.
The need to embrace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) was another hot topic. Mirroring the wider social movement, it was emphasised how companies are now looking to enhance their reputation while also contributing to a fairer and more respectful workplace.
4. Some booths are built better than others
As usual, exhibitor booths came in all shapes and sizes at CPHI North America, from very basic displays with a few pull-up banners to more sophisticated bespoke modular constructions.
It is a tried and tested method, but the most popular booths were the ones with games and happy hours designed to draw a crowd. A golf game and a gin certainly attracted Ryan and I later in the day. We both found that the more relaxed atmosphere encouraged networking and made for some truly competitive golfing (the less said about our efforts at the latter though the better!)
5. Philly for the future?
CPHI North America has already announced that it will be staying in Philadelphia for 2025, with CPHI representatives on the show floor encouraging sign-up for next year. The new CPHI Saudi Arabia event in December was also promoted heavily throughout the event.
Interestingly though, the event feedback survey distributed asked attendees for their preferences for the location of the show, including options such as Las Vegas and New Orleans.
The survey also fielded attendees’ thoughts about the show dates, potentially in response to the view that May is too close to DCAT Week in March.
Could the future of CPHI North America lie away from Philadelphia? Time will tell, but for now CPHI North America remains in the City of Brotherly Love.
Final thoughts
Whatever the future holds for CPHI North America, it’s clear that the pharma event industry is returning to its pre-pandemic best. More attendees are predicted to arrive in Philadelphia next year and the CPHI brand continues to expand into new regions and markets.
As well as CPHI, there are a huge number of other industry shows, from niche application-specific symposiums to the large global general shows, as key figures look to exchange ideas, network, and drive innovation.
At Notch, we regularly attend industry events and we look forward to meeting with our partners and industry network again soon at CPHI Milan!