Piotr Sawicki, SCRS European Summit chair, discusses why this event is a must-attend for global clinical research professionals. Hear about the sessions attendees can look forward to this year and listen in for essential tips to make the most of your experience.
Join us for the 2023 European Site Solutions Summit being held from 13-14 November 2023 in Cascais, Portugal.
Piotr Sawicki, SCRS European Summit chair, discusses why this event is a must-attend for global clinical research professionals. Hear about the sessions attendees can look forward to this year and listen in for essential tips to make the most of your experience.
Join us for the 2023 European Site Solutions Summit being held from 13-14 November 2023 in Cascais, Portugal.
Welcome, and thank you for joining the Society for Clinical Research Sites for SCRS Talks. I'm Jimmy Bechtel, the Vice President of Site Engagement. SCRS Talks is a program that allows our partners and those that we work closely with to take a few minutes to address issues of industry concern, share exciting achievements, and to learn more about our extensive community. Today, we have Piotr Sawicki, the current chair of the EU Summit Planning Committee, here to share with us More details and information about the upcoming European site solution summit. Piotr, it's great to have you with us today. Really excited to learn more about the upcoming summit, but first, I'd love to hear a little bit more about you.
Piotr Sawicki:Thank you, Jimmy. I'm also very excited. I'm looking forward for this amazing meeting this in Cascais in in Portugal, mid of November. I'm with a clinical research market for more than 20 years, always representing sites from privately owned sites through a small network clinical dedicated research sites and many others. So a site is my beloved part of this business, and I'm very happy to have this opportunity.
Jimmy Bechtel:Great. Thank you, Piotr. I know you and the committee have been hard at work and are equally excited to host the European Site Solution Summit in Cascais for the second year in a row in that location. So, let's start off by talking about a little, talking a little bit about your experience at last year's summit. What were some of your favorite sessions and takeaways that you gained from, from last year?
Piotr Sawicki:First, the small, amazing city of you mentioned Cascais, the pronunciation is quite far, but the, the city is wonderful. bringing all the best of the Portuguese experiences in one place, including the architecture, you know, the culture and the great cuisine. So yeah, the same with the venue place. I do recall the Miragem hotel is outstanding. This was a n excellent place for such a great meeting. My overall experience is I would say more and more positive every year. I do recall our first meeting back in, I think 2018, correct me if I'm wrong. Nice France with that time around 100 person event and last year we have over 300 people representing sites, representing SMOs site networks, vendors, sponsors, and And CROs, and I think just to bring some of the detailed numbers, we had almost 100 attendees representing sponsors and CROs only. So this shows how important this unique opportunity to meet with the sites is for the pharma industry. What else? In addition, I think the great atmosphere of the whole meeting allows everyone to speak, to share their voices, And just to bring some of them I do recall the discussion how pandemic time teach us of the centralized studies and how the whole clinical research industry get together to find the best solutions to continue to work for our patients. Or how we, we can improve this voice of sponsor sites, the partnerships and many, many other practical advices for both sites and, and the sponsors. So very good takeaways. And I think of course the, the site spark award, it's it's amazing opportunity. With the excellent ideas presented by the sites and I'm looking forward for this year for the discussions for new takeaways especially that we are expecting for the first time to have a public institutions actively participating. Like the Polish Medical Research Agency will participate and I'm happy to see the agency from my country, but I'm more happy to see the important institutions recognize the status of this of the summit. So I hope this will open the gate for the other, other institutions from other countries to participate and collectively discuss about about the market and the challenges.
Jimmy Bechtel:Thank you, Piotr. Lots to look forward to, I think, and I agree with a lot of the points that you've made. I'm kind of almost flashing back to some of those great sessions and the venue and the great opportunities that we had when we came together last year in in Cascais. Excited again to do that together as well. Piotr, we start every summit off with the site landscape presentation and it truly is one of those kind of cornerstones of our summit. And so. Could you share a little bit about what the landscape will cover this year as far as topic areas and maybe some of the content it will bring to the landscape for clinical research sites as well as industry partners?
Piotr Sawicki:Yeah, you know the landscape presentation is one of the key points that we are all waiting for during this meeting. So detailed data presented by yourself, and I like it a lot the way you presented presenting in a great form allows the participant to learn more about the site landscape. In the current year, in the present moment of time, and this is very important because every year we have new data available new information and this is critical for everyone to take the survey and share your data. So the survey is for all of the industry stakeholders and I kindly ask you. To take a moment and complete the survey. I believe that we'll have that you will have some time. And you will easily find the link to the survey somewhere in the SCRS space, either on the LinkedIn or the website. And what you can expect from this survey this year and every year, everything that will allow you to benchmark your site, to learn about the sites from the various perspectives. And this is very important because this the survey bring the the picture of the sites for the sites. For the sponsors, for everyone. Things like the finance, the site readiness and preparedness for technology implementation perspective on working with the global sponsors and the CROs, regulatory requirements or workforce recruiting and rotation. So everything what is needed to understand how your site. Converse to other side and and see the data and also for the sponsor to understand. Where are the most important critical points for the sites for the site industry, so please make sure to complete it and be there with us on November 14th to see the results and you're more than welcome
Jimmy Bechtel:thanks Piotr. Yes. It's. It's a lot of really valuable data for sites to understand how they might sit amongst other sites, but also for industry, which I think is extremely important to understand where they can help sites most effectively backed by data. It's one thing to hear sites and have conversations about it and then talk about it and discuss things. Anecdotally, but it's another thing to actually see data that supports those asks and those solutions and those needs. So some great pieces of that survey that you had mentioned there that I think are really important to the messages that we're trying to bring forward in that, we're also really excited to be talking about those sessions, right? Peter, the we're always refreshing our speakers and our topics every year. We're going back to the to the proverbial drawing board to bring information and. Knowledge that's most relevant and industry leading. So let's talk about this year and what sessions that our attendees might be able to expect on our agenda. And maybe then what sessions you're most looking forward to.
Piotr Sawicki:Yeah, I think just before we'll speak in details about the sessions. I would like to share with you that each year we spend a lot of time planning the sessions and we carefully. Choose the topics. We, we are listening to the industry. We are reviewing the data and my colleagues from the steering committee are amazing And of course, the SCRS team are amazing in completing. You know, the least off of the sessions, so it's it's a really valuable time, and I encourage everyone to to take your time and and participate. So this year, both plenary and breakout session topics looks for me, it was fantastic. Just to mention the key of the plenary like engaging patients, the best practices to get patients involved, which we know. It is is a challenge for everyone, and things are changing from year to year. Another one effective collaboration across the institutions, learning from each other. This is another amazing topic. So Great opportunity to hear from all of all of the industry stakeholders and to find a solutions how we can effectively work together and things like immediate guidance perspectives on decentralized studies and how to put, you know, the regulatory frame on on the learnings from pandemia times and this is this is another very important and great plenary topic. And of course, breakout sessions that will cover all the major pain points of the site and investigators and sponsors. I think, you know, everyone will find something interesting, no matter who you are, a stand alone PI or a newborn site putting first steps in the clinical research world, mature SMO, public network or sponsor or CRO.. Everyone matters here and everyone will find interesting topics from diversity, budgeting inflation. Patient engagement, sponsor collaboration up to things like EU regulation impact on CTR implementation. So total of five plenary sessions and 20 breakout sessions. Believe me, there will be a massive interest, and each side, in my opinion, should have more than one delegate during this meeting, for sure.
Jimmy Bechtel:Absolutely. I'm excited for those sessions as well, Piotr, and excited for the approach that we're taking with some of the content. Echo your excitement as well around the fact that so many different organizations bring more than one person, right? There's there's multiple people there so that they can attend multiple breakout sessions, because oftentimes we get the feedback that there's too much good content going on at the same time. I can't pick between these sessions and, you know, that is unfortunately the, the nature of breakout sessions, but bringing multiple people and, and sort of dividing and conquering those sessions is a really great approach. So I do encourage and hope that there are several organizations that will be able to do that this year and, and, and try to gain as much knowledge as they can from those different sessions going on simultaneously.
Piotr Sawicki:Yeah. Just to comment on this, Jimmy, I think the critical is do your homework. I mean, prepare yourself for this meeting and this will be the key to success. So review the agenda, make sure that you are aware of what is the best interest for you during this, during the summit. So, yeah, and then you can share the forces and then bring more people. Definitely.
Jimmy Bechtel:Absolutely. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more, Piotr. What do you think attendees should know or think about for the summit?
Piotr Sawicki:I think the first of all, you should know that you must be there, so there is no other such site centric meeting available on the market, and I'm saying this from the bottom of my heart. I've been there and I know it. And please be there. Be with us with other sites with the sponsors and the CROs this is a unique opportunity to meet your research partners face to face and you know, put everything on the table, openly discuss what we love and hate about this business and how we can improve to deliver new medications to our precious clients, to our patients. So make sure to come to this amazing Cascais and at least I would suggest on Saturday to enjoy the place. Get familiarized with the event agenda, which is available on the website in advance and plan your presence, plan, plan the way you want to participate. And of course, download the app. I personally love this app, allows me for great planning, to check who is attending and to plan the networking with the other attendees. And this is, this is amazing support delivered by the SCRS team. And the one very important suggestion You cannot miss the Sunday welcome reception at 5 30. Just the day before of the official opening where, you know, a lot of people are gathering there. To know each other and and, you know, just to feel the energy, to feel what we'll bring to them, for the next next two days. And then I think that another important is bring your"why" with you. Why you want to be there? Why you want to be a part of this of this event? And why you must be there and why the learning from each of the sessions will support you individually and support your business, no matter if you sit on the side level or you work for the sponsor. Just think about the reasons. And I do recall from the last meeting, the comment from the sponsor representative. I don't want to mention the name of the sponsor, but I do remember the comment in the end during the takeaway session. He mentioned like. I take this home to my team and I will present in details and I will do my best to make sure that we will implement. internally and we will change the way we work with our sites. So I think there is no better recommendation for both the the clients the sponsors, CROs and the sites to participate in this amazing event.
Jimmy Bechtel:I couldn't agree more, Piotr. I think that's a really, really excellent point is come into the summit with your why and your game plan as to how you're going to execute that why. What do you want to go to that summit for and what do you want to bring back to your team? Use the agenda as your guide to help. Map that Why out. I think that's a really, really excellent point and a really great way for people to take advantage full advantage of what we have to offer at the site solution summit. So thank you for sharing that perspective. I think that's a really, really strong and powerful point for all attendees so. It's shifting gears then a little bit to, as we begin to close our conversation here, talk to us a little bit in, from your perspective, Piotr, on how attendees can then maximize their experience. So we have our why, we know why we're going, we know how, what we should know before we go to the conference, but then how do we, how do we maximize that?
Piotr Sawicki:Yeah, this is important question Jimmy and I think there is a message to gather us here. This meeting is for you for the sites for investigators, sponsors, CROs, vendors. And this meeting is not about you like the other conferences where people are, you know, speaking about science, speaking about sponsors, but this meeting is for you and with you. And so please keep this one in mind and do not be afraid to share your voice as much as possible. Your ideas, your solutions, your improval proposals. This is the best moment in time to collectively discuss all our needs and proposals. Have a lot of takeaway messages from this meeting, and you can use them. You can use the outcomes of the discussions and the knowledge you get in discussions with your teams, but also with your clients. You are empowered to refer to the summit, for example, during the client meetings, remind them that this is what we discussed and agreed during the recent EU SCRS summit, let's proceed this way for our mutual benefit. So this gives you an amazing opportunity to use the knowledge that you will have from this meeting. So share your voice, be active, raise your hands and just feel free and relax that we are in one environment and we can really focus on our, and on our needs and our clients needs.
Jimmy Bechtel:Great Piotr I think that's a really excellent place for us to end our conversation here. Really, really exciting opportunities for our entire community to take themselves to the next level, to learn more, to better do what they need to do and to work better together. I think that's another truly. Foundational part of these conferences is that partnership foundation that these conversations are built on, which is of course centered around that idea of collaboration and communication. So thank you for bringing some of those things to the forefront of our conversation here today, Piotr.
Piotr Sawicki:Thank you very much, Jimmy. And I'm very much looking forward to meet as many people as possible and just to make sure that the way we will collaborate is much better, much easier and faster. And with with our patients in our hearts. So this is something that I'm looking forward to see and to feel mid of November this year in Cascais in Portugal. Thank you so much.
Jimmy Bechtel:Thank you again. For everyone listening, make sure that you register for that upcoming summit. Being held November 13th and 14th in Cascais, Portugal, as well as other summits by visiting the summit page on our website, myscrs. org. While you're on that same website, be sure to also check out other SCRS publications and resources built for you, the site community, in the Publications and Member Benefits and Resources section of that same website. We appreciate your participation in today's program and look forward to having you join us for more great content coming up very soon. Thanks for listening.