Elevating Life Sciences Meetings: Why Expert-Led Technology Matters

Life sciences meetings increasingly rely on interactive technology, but scaled back DIY or subscription tools often deliver only the basics—polling, Q&A, and simple audience participation. What they lack is the power of true collaboration between meeting planners and an expert technology partner who can maximize engagement and uncover deeper insights. These insights are important because stakeholders expect data driven proof of ROI and meaningful intelligence that informs their budgets and strategies. Achieving this requires more than plug-and-play features. It demands the right blend of expertise, configuration, and support to move beyond participation and into measurable impact.

What to Expect from Life Sciences Meetings in 2026

As the trends of 2025 become the norms for 2026, it’s clear that small, regionalized meetings are going to be more prevalent than ever, and meetings of all formats will continue to thrive. Audiences continue to show a strong preference for face‑to‑face interaction, with 82% favoring in‑person events and 70% considering live formats to be the best source of training and professional content.¹ These flexible formats make it easier for busy healthcare professionals to participate, but they still expect a user-friendly format with multiple ways to interact with content and speakers.

While organizers consistently prioritize engagement to make meetings meaningful for attendees, what constitutes engagement can vary widely. In most DIY and SaaS solutions, it is often limited to responding to polls or typing questions into an app. When success is measured only by how many people click a box or submit a question, that leaves significant opportunity and insight unrealized.

Engagement Beyond Clicks

Engagement should go well beyond the simple definition of people “doing things” throughout a meeting to prove they haven’t tuned out. Done correctly, engagement is the most effective way to keep an audience focused while simultaneously gathering actionable intelligence for organizers and stakeholders.

To get the most from engagement, planners should start by clarifying their meeting’s focus and goals, then selecting the engagement tools that will gather the most relevant data. Features such as pre- and post-tests, polling, quizzes, and confidence assessments can uncover insights such as:

Levels of knowledge gain and retention.
Individuals who may need more training.
Site challenges around elements such as enrollment or protocol.
The sentiments of attendees in relation to a particular therapy.
Potential roadblocks to adoption.
Strategic consultation during planning to identify engagement opportunities and best use of features.
Configuration of the platform tailored to the specific needs of the client and meeting format.
Live, real-time operation and support of the technology so meeting planners can focus on broader responsibilities.
Ability to react to last-minute changes and opportunities to capture more data or increase engagement.
Development of insights reporting based on meeting goals and stakeholder information needs.

There are hundreds of ways meeting technology can be configured, so it’s imperative to have strategies for acquiring all this information and clearly and concisely reporting it to stakeholders. DIY platforms are intentionally designed to be quick and easy to deploy, but that simplicity tends to come at the expense of opportunities to fine-tune programming and gain deeper insight.

Advantages of Expert-Led Technology

A technology partner who offers consultative services, engagement tools, and analytics offers advantages over stand-alone interaction technology. Technology disruptions during a meeting can compromise key messages and hinder the achievement of goals. It’s risky, then, to rely on a subscription-based provider whose business model and profitability rely on low-touch service with limited access to support. Many offer only virtual service teams (via chat or email) who are available within preset hours or weekdays.

In contrast, expert-led solutions ensure trained, live support throughout the meeting to keep content flowing as planned and capture a larger data set.

Key advantages include:

Strategic consultation during planning to identify engagement opportunities and best use of features.
Configuration of the platform tailored to the specific needs of the client and meeting format.
Live, real-time operation and support of the technology so meeting planners can focus on broader responsibilities.
Ability to react to last-minute changes and opportunities to capture more data or increase engagement.
Development of insights reporting based on meeting goals and stakeholder information needs.

From Planning to Proof

Working with a technology partner that specializes in life sciences and offers end-to-end support produces higher engagement, resulting in richer data and deeper insights that clearly demonstrate return on investment.

WCG Array has collaborated with meeting planners for thousands of life sciences meetings, incorporating their feedback into a seamless blend of white-glove service, intuitive attendee features, and robust insight generation. This combination helps clients gain a clear picture of meeting success and ROI.

Reach out to discuss how we can help you remain competitive and get the budgets you need.

1 https://www.freeman.com/resources/freeman-trends-report-q1-2024/