Jennifer Redmond
SVP, Medical Strategy
MCME
Bringing the RWC to Life
Until recently, retina was the only main sub-specialty in ophthalmology without its own world congress, despite the fact that the industry investment in R&D for this sub-specialty is the highest. Jennifer Redmond is a large reason behind why that changed.
As SVP, Medical Strategy for MCME Global, a San Diego, CA, full-service medical education company, Jennifer was the force behind the recent inaugural Retina World Congress (RWC). “We recognized an opportunity to create a different kind of meeting where the entire world of retina was welcome to contribute,” Jennifer explains.
The original RWC plan was to hold a two-day meeting with approximately 30 to 40 faculty and 300 attendees. Interest in the idea grew rapidly, and soon 35 global retina societies signed up as partners to develop the agenda. In the end, the congress drew more than 170 faculty from 36 countries and 1,000 attendees.
Beyond the faculty and content, there were other reasons why RWC was considered a success. The Board charged MCME with the task of differentiating RWC from other conferences. MCME ran with this challenge and they definitely delivered, with the help of MCME’s sister company, Carling Communications, which developed the distinctive branding that set RWC apart.
Additionally, the use of technology contributed to the success of RWC. Rather than using standard A/V with a couple of screens and projectors, MCME relied on a 70-foot screen to project in different formats. MCME also put a great deal of time into the conference app, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the meeting. The app gave attendees the ability to view presentations and video posters from any device.
“Attendees were blown away by the delivery of content,” Jennifer says. “Focusing on the details enabled us to bring a new level of sophistication and polish to conference execution.”
RWC was a huge success, and MCME is already in the planning process for the next Retina World Congress scheduled for 2019.
