The 2021 NLSDays, April 20-23, will be arranged digitally and will include extended time for face-to-face partnering meetings, high-level content sessions, workshops and innovating digital networking features.

Since its inception in 2013, Nordic Life Science Days (NLSDays) has grown to become the largest Nordic partnering conference dedicated to the life science industry. This annual event throughout the years has attracted leading decision makers from biotech, pharma and medtech, as well as finance, research, policy and regulatory authorities. The agenda always includes a mixture of hot life science topics in the form of super sessions, workshops, company presentations and exhibitions.

The three pillars of the event

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic the team behind the event decided early September 2020 to go for a fully digital event, to be held April 20-23, 2021. Re-creating the event in a digital format is of course a challenge, but Olivier Duchamp, Managing Director of NLSDays, says that he and his colleagues will still be able to deliver the three strong pillars of the event, Partnering, Educational Program and Exhibition.

”The exhibition has been turned into a Digital Showcase, offering companies the opportunity to raise their profile before and during the event, including multiple interaction capabilities with the visitors, direct partnering meeting requests, live chat, video presentation and digital library.”

“For example, we will offer an extended partnering experience over four days, 24 hours a day, with the One-on-One Partnering platform which has been adapted to the virtual meeting format. The program, consisting of one grand opening session, six Super Sessions and six workshops will be delivered “live”, including direct interaction with the online audience through Q&A, pools and chat features,” he says. ”The exhibition has been turned into a Digital Showcase, offering companies the opportunity to raise their profile before and during the event, including multiple interaction capabilities with the visitors, direct partnering meeting requests, live chat, video presentation and digital library.”

A digital event will never replace a real in-person event, he adds, “However, we can find some benefits in participating in a full digital event, mainly regarding B2B meeting activities. As people won’t have to travel from abroad, and as we have extended the partnering times, people from all over the world will have the opportunity to initiate partnerships with more people at their convenience, working safely from home or from their office.”

The best possible return on investment

NLSDays has also become a unique place to do business and attendees have expressed their appreciation of the informal atmosphere combined with an organized approach to meeting highly relevant people.

“Of course, the digitalization of the event cannot replace real interaction between participants and NLSDays is very well known for creating unique networking opportunities to those who are joining. Through specific design efforts, live sessions with real time interaction, and extended partnering times, we are doing our best to make this transition smooth and sustainable. All registration fees have been reduced so all kinds of companies, academia, and startups can afford it and get the best possible return on investment,” says Duchamp.

Partners, speakers, registered participants, exhibitors and sponsors have given us positive and encouraging feedback, notes Duchamp.

“Most of them have confirmed their commitment and participation in the digital event, and 100% of the program initially planned to be “in-person” is confirmed and all selected speakers will join.”

Super sessions, workshops and an investment day

As usual, the NLSDays program includes different super session, highlighting topical issues. This year’s six super sessions are Data as the new currency – The Nordics as world leaders on health data, Microbiome: The new Genetics?, New Vaccine Technologies, The push for intelligent capital, From population to precision and The new cross-industry playground. There will also be workshops on the themes Standing out in the crowd, Bridging the gap: Across Oceans, Sectors and Regulations, Successful CRO navigation and Sustainability in Life Sciences.

“Our team and our Program Director, Ms. Chelsea Ranger, put together an amazing program. All sessions and workshops will offer up-to-date content in many different areas, there will be an opening keynote address from Emmanuel Ligner, CEO at Cytiva (formely GE Healthcare), and an extraordinary showcase from the top five Nordic flagship companies.”

The program includes several prominent and interesting speakers, including Dr. Mervi Aavikko, Project Manager FinnGen, University of Helsinki, Mr. Karl Bergman, CEO, Elypta, Dr. Sam Oddsson  Chief Medical Officer & Co-Founder, SidekickHealth, Dr. Frederik Knud Nielsen, Strategic Pipeline Lead, Nordics, Novartis, Mr. Bogi Eliasen, Director of Health, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, Dr. Falk Ehmann (TBC), Chair Innovation Task Force, European Medicines Agency, Ms. Jeanne Bolger, Corporate Venture Capital Investor, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, and many more.

The five flagships

“Our team and our Program Director, Ms. Chelsea Ranger, put together an amazing program. All sessions and workshops will offer up-to-date content in many different areas, there will be an opening keynote address from Emmanuel Ligner, CEO at Cytiva (formely GE Healthcare), and an extraordinary showcase from the top five Nordic flagship companies,” says Duchamp.

The five 2021 flagships, Kerecis from Iceland, Exact Therapeutics from Norway, Cellink from Sweden, Pancryos from Denmark, and Aiforia Technologies from Finland, have all been selected for their personal contribution to Nordic values and success.

Investment Day

In addition, on April 19th, just before NLSDays 2021 starts, the first Nordic Life Science Investment Day will be launched, Duchamp concludes. This pre-event will gather more than 60 selected Nordic companies and a very large investor panel from all over the world.

Learn more about the event and register at www.nlsdays.com, www.nlsinvest.com

Photo of Olivier Duchamp: Camille Sonally