T2B Monthly | December 2024

Phew! What a year it’s been.

With the holiday season and JPM upon us, it’s so important that we all make an effort to switch off from work for a little bit when we can. 

It’s all too easy to sneak away from family gatherings to take a quick look at a slide deck or check in on your emails – but I hope you’ll give yourself time to rest and refresh (I need to work on this too, so this is very much a “note to self” for me!).

I hope our last newsletter of 2024 will be one of the last emails you read of the year.

Well, we can dream, right? Wishing you and yours happy holidays!

Today's email is 1,396 words, a 6-minute read.

In This Edition

🚀 T2B Pro Launch

We’re just a few weeks away from the launch of T2B Pro on January 15th.

Don’t forget, that means that from that point onwards, T2B Pro members will have access to: 

• Quarterly networking meetups

• Peer-coaching groups

• Biopharma comms firms + member directory

• Member-led, topic-specific roundtables

• Ad-hoc open discussions

• Weekly industry-specific resources

• Monthly expert-led panels

• Quarterly professional development masterclasses

• In-person forum (coming soon)

• T2B content archive

• Leadership lab premium offerings

• Give-back opportunities

• Preferred pricing for T2B-vetted platforms

We’d love you to join us, so set aside $1K (or reserve $1K from your professional development budget) for a T2B Pro membership on January 15th.

T2B Pro will also offer businesses the opportunity to get involved at an organizational level by providing a group membership for their team and becoming a T2B-certified employer, or by partnering with us and sponsoring programming.

🔥 Pre-JPM Press Panel Recap

About 100 T2B members joined our second annual pre-JPM press panel earlier this month, where a cross-section of life science journalists shared what trends they’re tracking and their top pitching tips.

Oliver Barnes (FT), Brad Loncar (BiotechTV), and Gabrielle Masson (Fierce Biotech) spoke about how pitches for JPM need to be brief and laser-focused, gave insights into what makes the best sources (hint: they speak plainly and share new ideas), and warned us to get our embargoed stories out in good time once we’re in the new year.

Plus, they told us about why you should NEVER ask a journalist for questions ahead of an interview.

Thanks to Oliver, Brad, and Gabrielle for sharing their personal insights and experiences with us! If you missed their panel, the replay is available on T2B Slack, or you can read my summary and join in the conversation over on LinkedIn.

📚 What Did We Learn in “The Science of Storytelling?”

It was fitting for us to revisit a foundational comms concept – storytelling – during T2B’s final event for 2024 a couple of weeks back.

As well as guiding us through the importance of using vivid language, emotional resonance, and identifiable characters to make stories stick, health tech comms pro and ex-Googler Erin Schmidt unpacked six key economic behavioral principles to help us frame our JPM messaging:

• Present bias

• The anchoring effect

• Loss aversion

• Social proof

• The framing effect

• Scarcity

ICYMI, the replay is available on T2B Slack (or if you want a refresher on the discussion!).

📸 T2B Programming Snapshot for January 2025

» Zen Before JPM Yoga Event  - Sunday, January 12th, 3-5 p.m. PT | Divine Yoga Studio, 406 Brannan St., San Francisco. Join us for a light yoga and stretching session led by yoga instructor and bioprocessing scientist, Nirel. This is the perfect opportunity to chill out and refresh your brain before the JPM chaos begins!

» T2Bmeet @ JPM 2025 Reception - Monday, January 13th, 4:30-7 p.m. PT (come and go) | 720 California St., San Francisco. ​Hosted by FleishmanHillard at their Union Square office, this come-and-go networking reception is open to all biopharma communicators in the T2B community, whether you're visiting for JPM or are local to the SF Bay Area. Complimentary refreshments will be provided. Half of all proceeds will benefit Life Science Cares. In addition to the gracious Health & Life Sciences Team at FH, we're also grateful to AbbVie and HealthQuant for helping make this event possible!

» January Comm Convo: T2B’s 2025 Blueprint - Thursday, January 23rd, 12:30-1 p.m. ET / 9:30-10 a.m. PT | Zoom. ​Explore what’s ahead for T2B in 2025. Together with three of our advisory board members, we’ll discuss how T2B’s programming has evolved to meet the needs of a growing global community and our vision for advancing the profession of biopharma communications. Gain a better understanding of T2B’s plans for the coming year and how you can tap into our resources to support your goals as a T2B Pro member.

📆 T2B Programming Preview for the Rest of 2025

We’re working hard on our 2025 calendar, but you can be assured lots of the following with a T2B Pro membership:

• Quarterly T2Bmeets in biopharma hubs.

• Signature T2Bmeets at industry events like ASGCT, ASCO, and BIO.

• Monthly Comm Convos (I’ll release the topics for these early in the new year).

• Brand new roundtables on topics including employee engagement, IR, patient advocacy, digital and social media, students and recent grads, and AI. Applications for the first roundtable will open in late January.

• Quarterly professional development masterclasses.

💬 Peer-Coaching Enrollment Opens on January 15th (and Closes January 31st!)

Open to all T2B Pro members, the T2B Peer-Learning Practicum (PLP) fosters deeper, meaningful dialogue that goes beyond traditional networking, enabling participants to build connections that last far beyond the program itself. 

And your opportunity to enroll is coming up very soon!

Groups of 5-7 communicators, led by senior cohort leads (all veteran communicators), will meet monthly to discuss challenges, share advice, and support professional growth. 

I’ll assign stratified groups based on your comms background, career level, and where you’re based.

Each monthly meeting with your cohort will be centered around a shared theme tied to broader community programming, like Comm Convos and Weekly Community Discussion Topics, and content will be bespoke to your group’s backgrounds and skillsets – even the most senior communicators benefit from this program.

Like Trista Morrison, a senior comms exec (and a T2B ad board member), who took part this year and said:

“Best experience within T2B thus far. Great to meet new people; two provided valuable connections outside the group re: professional development.”

Keep an eye out for more details coming soon on how to enroll. We’ll also be announcing our cohort leads in early January. 👀

⏪ Biopharma Beats Bulletin Rewind

We profiled a different journalist each month this year for our Biopharma Beats Bulletin series. 

While each Q&A revealed candid – and sometimes colorful – takes, here are five takeaways that were consistent across every profile:

1. Respect and trust are the foundation of every great PR-journalist relationship. Journalists value proactive communication, thoughtful follow-ups, and a mutual commitment to getting it right.
   

2. Clear, targeted pitches are a must. Subject lines and emails that quickly explain why your story matters help journalists sift through their inbox and prioritize what they can cover.
   

3. Stories grounded in compelling data and strong storytelling stand out. Bringing the science to life through the people and breakthroughs behind it makes for engaging, memorable stories.
   

4. Tie your news to broader trends for maximum impact. Framing pitches around industry-wide shifts or timely developments gives journalists a reason to dive in and explore the wider significance.
   

5. Give journalists what they need to tell the best story. Offering embargoed news, unique insights, or exclusive data builds trust and helps journalists create content that resonates.

Read more here.

(Don’t forget that T2B Pro members will be able to dip back into this content whenever they like by accessing the T2B content archive starting in January!)

👀 Seen on Social

Is this the ultimate JPM business card…?!

I keep getting asked whether business cards are still “a thing” at major events like JPM. 

And my answer is: only if you want them!

I find LinkedIn much more efficient, so it’s worth having your profile QR code handy. 

But this is another level!

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