A week on from BIO International convention 2018 I have had time to look back and reflect what we at the Northern Health Science Alliance achieved at the conference – and the takeaways from it.

BIO is the chief Bio Sciences business conference in the world. It is where investments are made, partnerships forged and where life sciences leaders from across the globe come together to make sure their country’s life sciences are represented.

Political leaders from across the globe attended this year as the importance of the field grows and the opportunities it offers to improve population health and wealth are recognised.

That’s why it was so important this year we had UK ministerial attendance – and the NHSA was delighted to secure trade minister Baroness Fairhead to speak at our UK networking breakfast, supporting us on a very successful event.

It’s incredible to think just a couple of months ago we were sat reflecting on how we could hold the UK’s networking breakfast to put the North’s health sciences on the map. That’s before we added to that supporting an antimicrobial resistance (AMR) panel for the government’s Northern Powerhouse and our on stand and partnering presence.

It took a huge amount of effort from Suzie, our Head of Corporate Engagement, Hannah our Head of External Affairs and Catherine Gresty who is now our dedicated Events Associate, to bring together all the elements of engagements, content and promotion to make sure it was a success. You cannot under-estimate the level of organisation which goes into an event like this.

On the day we were overwhelmed with the positive feedback. We had over 100 people come to our breakfast to hear what the UK and the North is excelling at in health innovation and over 100 people come to the AMR seminar to hear the region’s leading voices, including NHSA’s chair Prof Ian Greer on the opportunities and obstacles in tackling AMR.

That’s not to mention the dozens of partnering meetings, speakers dinner, BIA and Virgin networking events, Australian MOU signing and dozens of off the cuff meetings – all leading to greater awareness  of the amazing work and opportunities in the North of England.

What the week also pointed to was how successful you can be at a global event when you have a targeted message which is driven by deep content. In the case of AMR not only is this an essential international topic to target but we in the North have the experts to support a deep programme of events.

Next year we’re looking forward to an even bigger and better BIO – we’ve put the region’s health sciences on the global map – and we’re going to make sure it stays there.