ChemOutsourcing 2019

The city of Parsippany in New Jersey is a great place to live. Excellent schools, low crime and more than 30 parks add up to a high ranking of #26 in a recent Money magazine list of the "50 Best Places to Live" in the United States. Another reason why it’s one of the best places to live are the multitude on pharma conferences in the city, with one of them being the 2019 Pharma ChemOutsourcing conference.  

The ChemOutsourcing annual conference, held September 17th - 19th at the New Jersey Hilton Hotel, is the largest USA-based API and Pharmaceutical Ingredients show attracting annually 700-800 top-tier customers, executive management and business development teams from the pharmaceutical, biotech, chemical, and chemistry services industries from 30 countries. The goal of this high level event mainly focuses on the API development supply chain encompassing raw materials, RSM, catalysts, drug discovery, process and chemical development, analytical, QA/QC, intermediates and commercial manufacturing of branded and generic small molecule API’s and innovative drug products, essentially covering all aspects of the chemical supply chain. All of the attendees are either executive "buyers" or "customers” from pharmaceutical companies and consultancies responsible for sourcing starting materials, intermediates, and active ingredients. The show is also heavily attended by high-level executive suppliers of similar services, including 130+ exhibitors. Suppliers use exhibit booths and free private meeting rooms to meet with their potential customers. A major perk of the event are the three consecutive evening beach parties punctuating the networking opportunities.

For large scale events such as ChemOutsourcing 2019, it can quickly become overwhelming for a team of company attendees, particularly if limited in size. With so much potential ground to cover, making the most of your time and investment is key, so we’ve put a few tips together for planning out your time in Parsippany:

Know the area and activities

ChemOutsourcing is a unique, annual pharmaceutical chemistry show with over 100 speakers with 2 tracks of speaker sessions, mostly chemists from pharma and biotech companies, and an exhibition for over 100 chemistry service providers. Every year, increasing numbers of small molecule companies and professional chemists attend the show. The conference discussions center around chemistry sourcing and outsourcing strategies, process R&D, chemical development, CMC, and new technologies in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. Every night, receptions, beach BBQ's, and gaming events foster high quality social interactions among the attendees for spectacular networking sessions. 

The focus of this year’s event is the supplier and information needs of virtual, emerging, and small to medium sized small molecule pharmaceutical companies. The attendance is this event is great, with dozens of emerging small molecule groups attending every year. Many of the meeting you will have during the show will be spontaneous, so please be ready for networking at any moment’s notice. The event also attracts attendees from 30 countries whose business focuses on every aspect of the API supply chain, from raw materials to specialty drug substances and packaged drug product. Geographically, many of the attendees hail from large & small molecule pharma companies including dozens of super small “two men and a molecule” companies from New York, New Jersey and New England, as well as the west coast around San Francisco. 

The 2019 event will feature 700-800 attendees, 100+ exhibitors, 50 speakers, and multiple panel discussions throughout the program. This year will have over 30 countries in attendance that are mainly North American and European with many from China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. 

Identify the right companies to meet

In addition to the multiple exhibitors and speaker sessions, there will be an abundance of networking experiences for you to partake and enjoy throughout the 3-day conference. On each day of the show, there will be a special event taking place, such as a casino night, karaoke event, and famous beach parties for all attendees to join and network in a fun environment. Another interesting networking function is called the “speed dating” event, where pharmaceutical companies will host quick roundtable discussions for about 5 minutes, in which attendees identify the companies that match their service offerings or needs then just show up. This is very informal with no presentations and only business cards, and then after a quick chat, you can move on to the next company you would like to meet, with no strings attached. In addition to the one-on-one meetings and special networking events, you will have the opportunity to walk around the exhibition hall and network with a multitude of CROs, CMOs and suppliers in your part of the industry. Another quick way to prepare for the exhibition hall is to check out the 2019 exhibitor list to research what companies will be there, as well as explore the venue by reviewing the floor plan and exhibitor map.    

One of the best ways to identify the right companies to meet during ChemOutsourcing 2019 will actually happen before you arrive in Parsippany! After registering your team, you will gain access to the Meeting App, where you can view the full attendee list and pre-schedule meetings before the event. 

Find out who’s going 

Attendees are primarily from multiple areas of development, including medicinal, organic, synthetic, and process chemists to name a few. One good way to determine what types of attendees will be at the conference is to check out the generalized Attendee List for more information. If you’re still interested, let’s take a look at the agenda break-down for more details on the event schedule. September 17th will kick-off the pre-conference schedule with the Buyer Breakfasts session from 7am - 830am. The purpose of the breakfast is to facilitate a private, exclusive gathering for attendees and pharma company peers without all of the suppliers. These exclusive breakfasts have been very successful in past shows and are a great way to get to know your counterparts before the event begins. After the Buyer breakfast, there will be exhibitor setup followed by the CMC pre-conference workshop, where you and your fellow sourcing managers will be able to work through a realistic sourcing scenario in small groups of 6-8 persons led by a facilitator, and will be a great hands-on experience for all attendees. After the CMC workshop, there will be the keynote speaker panel on “Trends in Chemistry Services and Contract Manufacturing,” followed by the Casino Night Games & Dinner Party for All Attendees, Speakers, Exhibitors starting at 5pm. 

Wednesday, September 18th will be the main part of the conference with both tracks of speaker sessions throughout the day, and the beach party networking event starting at 530pm, with Hawaiian shirts and sandals recommended! Thursday, September 19th concludes the event with another day full of speaker session tracks. For more details on the speaker list and activities, be sure to check out the full conference agenda.

Footwear and attire  

This point is really worth mentioning, and since exploring the ChemOutsourcing venue can be such a lengthy task, please make sure to wear your most comfortable footwear and attire in order to stay cool during the activities and programs! You’ll want to be at peak endurance during this 3-day event, so be sure to drink plenty of water, and don’t miss out on any important exhibits, sessions, and most of all, meetings!

Meet up with Zymewire

While we may not be attending ChemOutsourcing 2019 this year, we’d still like to hear from you! Let us know about your experiences, and how your company preps for events to maximize ROI. If you would like to learn more about how teams at service providers around the world are getting more face to face meetings with the right prospects, reach out for a demo today!