CONNECTED EDGE Conference 2019 summary
The CONNECTED EDGE conference hosted by BBC Medical Correspondent Fergus Walsh, took place on the 3rd and 4th April at The Vox Conference Centre in Birmingham, with close to 500 delegates in attendance.
There was a real buzz and great atmosphere across the 2 days with members of the EDGE community from across the UK, Canada, Belgium and New Zealand all in one place, building relationships and connecting through the use of the EDGE system.
Keynote speakers included Clare Meachin, Associate Director of Nursing NIHR CRN CC & Deputy Chief Operating Officer CRN South London, Stephen Lock, Head of Business Intelligence, NIHR CC and Marianne Tomsa, Therapy Relationship Manager/Study StartUp Specialist, Roche. Throughout both afternoons we hosted a number of breakout and workshop sessions to cover all aspects of EDGE suited to all job roles. These were ran by EDGE experts amongst the community as well as by some of our EDGE Knowledge team.
In keeping with the CONNECTED theme we tried out some new aspects to the conference by adding a QR code to each delegate badge so that connecting would be easier. We also colour coded each delegate badge to help identify other members of the EDGE community working in a similar job role. These colours were then used in the ‘Get Connected’ zone, a designated space for connecting after lunchtime. The networking dinner took place on the first night, where not only did delegates receive some delicious food but they also took part in our traditional EDGE quiz, followed by a special awards ceremony which showcased some of the fantastic work that certain individuals and organisations have been doing with EDGE. We then had some music from a band called the Altitudes to finish off what was a great evening.
A real highlight of the 2019 event was our patient speaker stories which reminded our audience the importance of research and why their jobs are so important. Not forgetting the introduction to EDGEY, the EDGE-hog, where each speaker received a cuddly EDGEY to take home or back to their office as a thank you.
For more information on our CONNECTED event, please visit the following pages: speakers, agenda, photo gallery, sponsors and exhibitors.
“Thank you for a fantastic conference last week. The event was a great success for our team and the opportunity to share ideas and network was the best I’ve experienced. We will certainly be back next year!”