A number of new business wins (primarily in the UK and US) and a new office opening in Shanghai has led to an increase in employees from 250 a year ago to 300 employees today, located in offices across the UK, US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong and China.

2012 also saw a significant increase in the number of countries Universal WorldEvents managed events in, from 47 countries in 2011 to 57 throughout the world (see map below). In total Universal WorldEvents managed more than 1,750 meetings and events for 145,000 delegates, with new destinations including Jordan, Panama, Peru, South Korea, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The most visited destinations included the UK, USA, France, Germany and Spain.

Breaking the numbers down, Universal WorldEvents has been responsible for organising 167 advisory board and KOL meetings, 244 investigator meetings, over 500 internal meetings and conferences, 100 training events and 40 incentives, as well as managing attendance at 350 congresses.

Graham McIntosh (Group Managing Director) said: “It is really encouraging to see such an increase in the number of staff across all our offices. It is a good reflection of our ability to grow and develop the business in a tough market. This, coupled with the additional investment in training and knowledge sharing, will ensure we continue to provide the best service to all our clients across the globe.”

Formed in March 2011 by the merger of leading healthcare specialist agencies UniversalProcon and WorldEvents, the agency is the largest full service global event management company specialising in serving the healthcare sector. With 36 years experience of delivering meetings and events, the agency has grown steadily in size since the merger.

Universal WorldEvents also recently reported an increase in both turnover and EBIT when it filed its annual results in April.

Acquired by parent company United Drug in 2012, Pharmexx is a contract services organisation and sits in the same division as Universal WorldEvents. As Universal WorldEvents Spain outgrew their old office space in Madrid the agency realised synergies between the two companies and relocated the Spanish business. You can see the new office location here.

Eduardo Hidalgo (Business Director Spain, pictured below) commented: “Recent new business wins have meant that the Spanish team has grown considerably over the past twelve months, so we are pleased to relocate to bigger offices where there is room to grow the team even more. We are also looking forward to developing our relationship with our sister company, and the benefits this will bring to both parties.”

Andrew Winterburn (Business Development Director Europe) added: “The companies will enjoy a benefit to this arrangement both from a budgeting and new business perspective as the leading agencies servicing healthcare clients in their respective fields.”

You can learn more about Universal WorldEvents Spain via their dedicated website.

Gavin joined WorldEvents in 1999 as an entry level Project Coordinator. In 2001, Gavin moved to the US to lead operations. Rising quickly through the ranks of WorldEvents, he helped grow WorldEvents from 20 employees to over 80 employees via a combination of organic growth and acquisition/merger activity. Through the merger, WorldEvents become Universal WorldEvents in 2011 and Gavin was promoted from Executive Vice President to CEO in 2012.

While Gavin has played an important leadership role within Universal WorldEvents, he is also considered a thought leader in the pharmaceutical meeting planning industry. Over the last four years, Gavin has often been invited to speak at pharmaceutical meeting forums such as the Meeting Planners Summit and Pharmaceutical Meeting Management Forum. He is particularly noted for translating complex pharmaceutical regulation into actionable process for meeting managers, such as the capture of itemized healthcare provider spend in preparation for reporting under the Physician’s Sunshine Act.

Gavin is also an advisory board member to the International Medical Meeting Professionals Association (IMMPA), which is dedicated to promote professionalism amongst medical meeting professionals through advocacy, education, research and service. Via this and other pharmaceutical meeting planning platforms, Gavin has worked alongside many industry professionals, including members of PhRMA, to educate the industry on regulatory requirements and best practices in the field.

Gavin will be profiled in a special section of the Philadelphia Business Journal 3 May issue as well as honored at a banquet that gathers nearly 500 business executives for cocktails, dinner and an awards ceremony on 22 May in Philadelphia.

C&IT’s annual recognition programme seeks to find the top 35 UK-based agency staff under the age of 35. The ‘A List’ began as a quest to seek out the future leaders of the UK events industry and the magazine approaches the key event agencies, and asks senior management to nominate their best talent and tomorrow’s leaders of their businesses.

Laura’s listing comes after Caroline Holmes was nominated in 2012.

Denise Abbott, UK Managing Director, said: “Since joining the company in 2009 as an Account Manager, Laura has worked primarily within the healthcare arena. She has enjoyed great career progression having been promoted to Senior Account Manager and more recently Account Director.”

“Laura is a dedicated individual who drives operational excellence for clients within her own team and the wider company. Her experience and knowledge in full service events, aligned with her business development skills, has been instrumental in the growth of numerous accounts and also a large contributory factor in major new business wins. As a result of this growth Laura has successfully expanded her account team from nine to 22 employees within the last twelve months, at the same time ensuring the focus remains on team development and succession planning for future.”

“Laura’s most recent successful event was a full service week long sales conference for 1,200 people in January 2013. Logistically this was across seven hotels, involved 103 additional sub-meetings, incorporated an integrated CSR programme, involved chartered and scheduled flights, delivered creative concepts and all production elements in addition to providing all materials in eight languages. The event was such a success that we have already been re-appointed by the client and have also won additional subsequent business as a result.”

“Following the merger of Universal Procon and WorldEvents, Laura was also actively involved in vision and mission initiatives resulting in a company video which is widely used with employees and clients and a bespoke induction for all new starters to our organisation.”

You can read the full ‘A List’ here as well as in the latest issue of the magazine.

]]> http://www.universalworldevents.com/news/laura-brown-nominated-to-cit-list/feed/ 0 http://www.universalworldevents.com/news/universal-worldevents-announces-double-digit-ebit-growth/ http://www.universalworldevents.com/news/universal-worldevents-announces-double-digit-ebit-growth/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:55:35 +0000 admin http://www.universalworldevents.com/?p=3116 Universal WorldEvents announces its results for the financial year ending September 2012.

EBIT (Earnings Before Interest & Tax) for the period was £3.314m compared to £2.996m in the previous twelve month period, representing an increase of 10.6%. The numbers have been consolidated from accounts covering the companies’ operations in the UK, US, Asia and mainland Europe.

Commenting on the performance, Graham McIntosh (Group Managing Director of Universal WorldEvents) said: “We are delighted with this set of results. These have been attained through a combination of operational efficiencies we have achieved following the merger of Universal Procon and WorldEvents in March 2011 and through growth of existing client business and new business wins.”

Turnover for the period has grown to £90m from £85m. McIntosh pointed out: “Turnover is not a good measure of performance in the industry due to the increasing incidence of agencies such as us acting as a disclosed agent.”

McIntosh concluded by saying: “These are a very encouraging set of numbers in the context of a continuing challenging economic environment. We are still investing in a number of overseas markets and while individual performances have varied by country, we have seen good growth in the UK, US and Asia. New business wins and the growth of business with existing clients should help to ensure steady growth over the next twelve month period.”

The Meeting & Incentive Summit is a one-day event for meeting and incentive professionals, and takes place on 24 April at the Museo del Traje in Madrid. It is expected that up to 200 international event planners will attend. Mark will conduct a 20 minute talk, helping attendees to learn about ROI best practice through practical examples that engage and involve event audiences whilst simultaneously improving margins. The session will give tips on interactive meeting design and creating effective learning environments, and will demonstrate how to implement the Phillips ROI Methodology by setting objectives and measuring results.

You can see the full event agenda here or register here. You can learn more about how Universal WorldEvents deliver impactful events here.

Universal WorldEvents has made a number of appointments to its recently opened Shanghai office including Joyce Wang who has been appointed as Account Director. Joyce has over ten years healthcare industry meeting and events experience working with local, regional and global pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer healthcare clients. Joyce’s role will be to grow the agency’s client base across China and to be responsible for the delivery of high quality events across the Asia region. Other appointments include Linda Lee (Project Manager) and an additional Project Executive and Finance Executive, resulting in a total team of eight full-time event delivery staff in Asia.

Graham McIntosh (Global Managing Director) commented: “The Asian market is going to become increasingly important in the years ahead and it is vital we are able to take advantage of the growing opportunity. We believe Joyce and the additional operational staff in Shanghai will enhance our service offer to existing and new healthcare clients; building on the knowledge and experience of our present team to deliver high quality meetings and events in China.”

During the panel discussion, industry thought leaders will share insights about delivering value to their organizations through live meetings, events and conventions. Attendees can learn about Meeting Professionals International’s research on the business value of meetings, including perception versus reality, stakeholder commitment and defining ROI. The discussion will drill down into medical meetings specifics that include compliance oversight, cost management, globalization and connecting with physicians or the sales team to deliver the right information at the right time. This panel will explore a variety of perspectives, from procurement to sales and marketing to meeting management, to establish a framework of communication that illustrates the value of face-to-face meetings.

You can learn more about the event and meeting management services offered globally by  Universal WorldEvents here.

Here is an extract from the feature:

Why do you consider yourself a pharma professional conference organiser?

Universal WorldEvents was created from the merger of two pharmaceutical event management agencies in March 2011, creating what we believe to be the largest pharmaceutical specialist event management agency in the world. Since then, we have expanded out client base and now work with 30 global pharmaceutical companies, some of which we have worked with for 20 years. We understand the life cycle of a drug, what differentiates an internal event from a Health Care Professional (HCPs) attended one, and the compliance restrictions we need to abide by.

How is the pharma conference sector faring in this economy compared to others?

The industry was affected by the economic situation and budget pressures like every other. It is also significantly affected by the pipeline of drugs in research and development and recently coming to market, as well as the expiration of patents and the competition to brands from generic products. A number of large pharmaceuticals have patents coming to an end soon and do not have the requirement for sales conference/training meetings for those products. Other companies, who do not have a strong pipeline, are reducing the number of clinical trial meetings they are organising as there are fewer products in development. However, some companies have a strong pipeline with a need for meetings and events, which offsets the reduction from other companies.

Have your pharma events seen a rise, or fall, in conference delegates?

Delegate numbers have stayed much the same. Pharma events are affected by the pipeline of drugs which would affect the number of events or delegates. Common pharma sector events can be split into two areas – internal (such as sales conferences, incentives, training workshops) and external (those with HCPs in attendance) such as investigator and monitor meetings, congress attendance, KOL events and advisory board meetings.

Do pharma events from non-UK associations have different requirements to the UK?

Yes, different countries throughout the world have different requirements however it is worth drawing the distinction between internal and external meetings. As far as internal meetings are concerned, regulatory codes only apply when an external medical professional or patient organisations are present, otherwise it is up to companies to operate within their own corporate guidelines. For example, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) sets out the regulatory framework for meetings and events in Europe. Each country within Europe sets out its own guidelines which must be within the EFPIA guidelines as a minimum.

In the UK, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has adopted the EFPIA guidelines to work towards a consistent framework across Europe. The code covers all aspects of the promotion of medicines to HCPs and patient organisations involved in the prescription of medicines. It is important that the ABPI code is used as a reference point in the planning of events to ensure compliance at every stage. A number of pharmaceutical companies have internal medical affairs teams who are responsible for compliance; some larger companies have a dedicated ABPI code of practice officer. This varies from business to business and is sometimes linked to their travel and accommodation policies. For external meetings, the guidelines state: “Companies must not provide hospitality to members of the health professions and appropriate administrative staff except in association with scientific meetings, promotional meetings, scientific congresses and other such meetings”.

Do you have to run your events differently overseas?

The way we organise our events with regards to processes and standard operating procedures does not change with regard to the destination, however we have to comply with various country regulations which does affect the organisation of the events. HCP attendance does become more complicated when you have to comply with the code of practice, particularly if you are inviting an HCP from outside the UK.  The issue you might face is that the code of practice in the country that the HCP is invited from may have different guidelines to the ABPI code, therefore we need to take that into consideration when planning the event. There are concerns that the US Sunshine Provision may start to influence other markets as well as the US meetings market.

What factors do you take into account when choosing the right venue for these events?

The venue selection is an area where companies often come under the most scrutiny, it is vital that we select the venue carefully and it does not compromise the professional integrity of the event or, more importantly, the company. We always take the following into consideration:

• Lavish venues must not be used
• Avoid using venues that are renowned for their entertainment facilities
• What is the perceived value of the venue?
• Avoid resort or spa venues
• Is the venue in keeping with the objectives/style of the meeting?
• How practical is the venue in terms of facilities, location etc.?

You can read the full article at Conference News here, learn more about Universal WorldEvents’ venue finding service here and view some video case studies from pharmaceutical events here.

When a Strategic Meetings Management Program (SMMP) has successfully been rolled out, it is important to continue to evaluate and improve upon it. For many companies it is also vital to design a plan for expanding the program to global counterparts. Kirsten’s session will provide proven tactics for immediate deployment to work towards the global implementation of an SMMP, and will run on Thursday 21 March from 10:45 AM until 12:00 PM.

The Pharma Forum is being held in Orlando, Florida at the World Center Marriott and is the largest meeting management event dedicated to the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries. Now in its ninth year, the forum offers emerging solutions and key insights towards regulatory and compliance oversight, strategic meetings management, globalization and innovative meetings technology.

If you are interested in attending Pharma Forum 2013 then you can register here.

You can learn more about Universal WorldEvents’ SMMP offering here.

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