T2B Monthly | February 2024

Hello friends! There’s been a LOT of energy and positive momentum around Ticket to Biotech as 2024 has gotten underway. You’re receiving this email because you’re part of our community or have expressed interest in what we’re building. Thanks for being part of this journey!

Today's email is 1,565 words, a 7.5-minute read.

In This Edition

What It Means to Be Patient-Focused, Really

Integrating the patient perspective into communications in our industry is critical, but can sometimes be overlooked amid scientific jargon and earnings reports. Jen Helfer, patient advocacy extraordinaire, will guide communicators during our next Comm Convo, coming up on March 6th, on authentically incorporating the patient voice in our work, from internal communications to public-facing content.

Why Attend?

• Identify ways to authentically introduce the patient perspective into communications strategies to yield narratives that are resonant and patient-centric.

• Discover best practices for adapting corporate messaging and materials to reflect patient experiences accurately and effectively.

• Gain insight on the preparation and ethical considerations for patient involvement in corporate materials and media pitching.

• Uncover strategies to engage patient communities in enhancing employee understanding and connection.

• Equip your comms team with practical approaches to navigate the initial steps in patient community engagement – with or without an in-house, dedicated patient advocacy function.

☝️ Friendly reminder that Comm Convos are free but open only to our T2B community. Confirm your eligibility, and complete our two-minute intake form if you’re not already a member.

Modern-Day Commentary Opportunities

In our inaugural Comm Convo, Former Fortune editor, turned op-ed consultant, Jake Meth advised us in biotech and pharma not to dismiss our knowledge or insights as seemingly too niche for broader commentary pieces.

View our top 10 takeaways here. The full event recording (1 hour) is available for free to the T2B community via Slack.

This Month’s Bulletin

We look forward to following Rowan as she settles into her new role. Read more about her new coverage areas and pitching preferences—and the rest of her lightning round answers—in the full bulletin, available on T2B Slack.

Hot Takes

This month’s theme is thought leadership. We’ve talked about what the term signifies, a few specific tactics and the opportunities available for a modern-day thought leadership platform.

This week, we look at a couple of specific thought leadership tactics: awards and speaking opportunities. Before the age of social media, opportunities to share POVs were more limited. Getting a high-profile award or invited to give a talk were almost always components of a thought leadership program. Do awards and speaking opps still have a place?

Community Voices & Insights

February’s Pulse Narrative features Alexandra Weingarten, of Kura Oncology. Alexandra found her way to our profession via a comms-adjacent career start. Read more about her journey.

📣 Nominate your favorite life science communicator to be featured in Pulse Narratives.

T2B + Fierce Rising Stars Partnership

We at T2B are very proud to announce our first official partnership! We’re teaming up with Fierce to take their Rising Stars program up a notch. Accepted participants will receive complimentary admission to the Fierce Pharma PR & Communications Summit—West Coast (May, Newport Beach) or East Coast (July, Jersey City).

🌟 This annual program is designed to grow the biopharma PR & communications community, welcome new members, and encourage personal and professional growth and mentorship within the industry.

📌 If you’re an aspiring or early-career communicator with <5 years of experience, we invite you to apply. Many of you reading this email are more senior than this, so please forward this info to folks in your network who may benefit from this experience.

Peer-Learning Practicum, Let’s Go!

25 T2B members. 4 cohorts. 13 locations. All career levels. From Washington to Germany, this year’s PLP participants are busy gearing up for their first cohort meetings this month. We can’t wait to hear your feedback!

BTW, Who’s Actually in T2B?

Launched four short months ago, our communicator community has grown to about 200 members and a 2.5x brand following on LinkedIn. ~Two out of every three members have >10 years of experience. There’s a pretty even split of in-house vs. agency, with a healthy contingent of independent consultants, recent grads/students and job seekers as well. We continue to expand in support of biopharma communicators globally!

Slack Savvy

This is feedback received following the February Comm Convo:

We couldn’t agree more! Now’s as good a time as any to fire up Slack and share what’s on your mind. Click here to activate your Slack account if you haven’t already.

We plan to create a member directory for networking ease, but in the meantime, many members are already on Slack.

Seen on Social

Amid all the takes on Super Bowl ads, selecting just a single social post to highlight was a tall order. We committed to highlighting only one post per monthly email, so we’re definitely not sharing two by first linking to an article via a LinkedIn post on “How America Experienced the Super Bowl—As Told by GIFs.”

Now that it’s clear we’re not cheating, let’s talk about unexpected partnerships. We’ve never been to Indiana, but somehow LinkedIn thought we needed to see this post featuring the Indianapolis Ballet and Indianapolis Animal Care Services. (LinkedIn was right.) This collaboration simultaneously promoted the ballet’s seasonal show and local pups in need of forever homes.

In the spirit of T2B’s February thought leadership theme, this got us thinking about how we biopharma communicators can use unconventional collaborations to take our thought leadership programs to new heights. Is there a creative idea you or your agency has pitched but you’ve been holding back on? Are there unobvious local community organizations whose partnership can, in turn, enable authentic action? Or, what about that grumpy head of regulatory affairs who writes you a novel for every single piece that goes through MLR review—maybe you could elicit a smile by inviting them for coffee?

Sometimes, we can amplify our point of view to create even more meaningful impact by partnering with the most unlikely people (or animals).

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