Ximbio’s James, Chandni and Isobel attended the American Society of Cell Biology (ASCB) conference in San Francisco. The key aims were to raise the profile of Ximbio amongst research scientists and identify new research tools suitable for our portfolio. Attending a US based conference is a great opportunity to expand our network and establish relationships with organisations based in North America and other non-UK territories.
The conference was huge, with 5000 delegates, 251 exhibition stands and hundreds of posters. The complexity of the 5 day programme was mind boggling with 21 special interest subgroups such as emerging model systems, bottom-up cell biology and neuronal cell biology and over 20 microsymposia for example cell cycle regulation, microtubule dynamics, organelle contact sites and biogenesis, cell adhesion and migration.
The organisers had clearly thought about the conference dynamics and how to make it worthwhile for exhibitors. Each day between 12 – 3pm all activities were dedicated to the exhibition hall including poster presentations. This meant there was a good flow of delegates coming by the Ximbio stand. Plus Chandni was quick off the mark to secure us one of only 20 exhibitor scavenger hunt places that helped bring delegates to our stand to collect tokens from us. In return we introduced Ximbio and captured their contact details.
We made great efforts to view the posters, as well as talking to presenters at their posters we had significant success getting people to our stand by putting Ximbio post-it notes on posters reading, ‘Have you considered sharing research tools with other scientists? Visit us at stand 1118’. It was rewarding when people arrived at the stand clutching a post-it note, often where we’d written a personalised message relating to their poster such as ‘We like your epitope tag system. Come and see us’.
As well as research scientists, we also networked with other exhibitors. For example, James took the opportunity to talk to a company who own an actin visualisation technology that a mouse model he’s working on adding to the Ximbio portfolio is encumbered by. This was a good opportunity to build the relationship as we’ll need a licence for the technology before we out-license the mouse. It was very encouraging when exhibitors proactively visited our stand to discuss synergies where we might work together or say ‘hi’ to Ximbio’s Hugh or Anjna who they’re already working with in relation to licensing our tools.
Raise your profile
Using platforms like Ximbio to share and commercialise your reagents for you and your institution’s benefit is one of many ways the internet is helping you to increase your impact on the scientific community. To read about other ways you can use the web to enhance your scientific reputation, boost your career opportunities and have a lasting impact within the scientific community, download our free ebook today.
{{cta('dcb7e581-0fd2-4937-9b36-3f671d622119')}}