*This piece was cross posted on the Biotech in Wisconsin blog.*
For the last couple of months, the Biotech in Wisconsin blog provided a list of local biotech events but this month I wanted to take it a small step further with two ways to get more involved with your biotech community.
Invite Others
We kicked off the first Biotech in Wisconsin Meetup in March. Sixteen people representing the full spectrum of the community came to talk about a variety of topics, including what programs they want to participate in and how to extend the reach into the community. I’ll share more about potential program ideas in later posts but the outreach ideas are interesting.
We got started with introductions that included how people heard about the Meetup. The majority of people saw the event info through posts/shares on LinkedIn. I was initially surprised by the dominance of LinkedIn. After looking at my social media networks, my Madison reach is greatest there, including the ability to share in the BioForward (WI biotech trade association) Group. We talked about ways to draw more people, particularly scientists, into the group. We got a couple of traditional suggestions, including publicize events through flyers at biotech companies and have human resources distribute the information to employees. I really liked the suggestion of asking each person in the room to directly invite five people they know to the next meeting. People are catalysts. With each of these suggestions, the key seems to be making it easy for people to follow through. As a first pass, we’ll continue to start each month with a synopsis that includes short descriptions and links makes the events easy to share and avoids the sense of spam for notifications of each individual event. Decide which events below you want to attend. Copy/paste/send the info to five people you want to see at each event.
Create Your Own Program
One of the program ideas that came up during our Meetup discussion was how to connect to the community as a scientist. There are so many ways to get involved but a high profile one came up that I wanted to share. The 3rd annual Wisconsin Science Festival (WSF) is going to be in Madison (and other areas of the state) from September 26-29. Last year the events were a variety of formats (demos, workshops, movies, lectures) and topics: from wheat germ DA extraction to hands on demonstrations of the physics of football to the microbiology of beer to the science of turning cocoa beans into chocolate. Since that doesn’t do WSF justice, check out this event overview from last year. A weekend devoted to science seems a great time to tell the community about biotech – the science industry. In addition to a different twist on science, greater participation from industry could help people of all ages see the range of possibilities for a career in science. Check out the Call for Proposals – they are due May 1st.
Biotech Events in April
You can check our master list of resources but here are the events we found on the calendar for April:
Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS) Wisconsin Chapter (link)
Tuesday April 9, 1 – 8 pm
Effectively Communicating with Management and Colleagues at GE Healthcare Institute (Waukesha)
Session 1: Talking to Management: What to Say and How to Say It Session 2: Dangerous Documents: Avoiding Land Mines in Your FDA Records and Emails
Workshop from Production Assistance for Cellular Therapies (National Heart Lung and Blood Program) (link)
Tuesday April 9, 8 am – 5 pm
Developing Cellular Therapies: From Preclinical Safety To Clinical Evaluation at Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery (Madison)
8th Annual Wisconsin Stem Cell Symposium (link)
Wednesday April 10, 7:30 am – 6 pm
Cell-Based Therapy for Heart and Vascular Disease: Pathways to Clinic at BioPharmaceutical Technology Center (Madison)
Madison Science Pub (link)
Sunday April 14, 2 pm
Speaker TBD
American Society for Quality – Madison Section (link)
Tuesday April 9, 5-8 pm
Ermer Night: Collaboration with the ASQ Student Section at Grainger Hall (Madison)
Biotech in Wisconsin Meetup (link)
Wednesday April 17, 5:45 PM
Bioinformatics: The Who, What, When, Where courtesy of Ryan Brown from UW Madison (Madison)
BioForward Breakfast (link)
Wednesday April 10, 7:30-9 AM
The speaker will be Jeanette C. Roberts, Dean of the School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Madison)
Madison Health Tech Meetup (link)
April TBD
The Next Element 
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