T2B Monthly | February 2025

The T2B team has been hunkered down this last month, reviewing all of the amazing conversations we had and feedback we received at JPM.

We’ve been looking at how we can build all of your insights into an actionable plan full of both in-person and online events, and we’re stoked to be sharing lots of programming announcements with you in this month’s newsletter.

On the topic of events, we’d also like to say a big thank you to all who attended yesterday’s Comm Convo on “Defining Strategic.” Several attendees commented that this event with Sue Hager, Abbas Kazimi, and Fiona Olivier was the best Comm Convo yet! Look out for a full debrief on the event coming very soon.

And, we have a special follow-on surprise! In addition to her role as a16z's chief marketing officer and operating partner, Sue is training to become a leadership and performance coach. As part of her Brown University program, she's offering 10 pro bono coaching hours exclusively to T2B Pro and Student members. Want a spot? Reply to this email—it's first come, first served!

Let’s get into this month’s catch-up, starting very aptly with our announcement of March’s Comm Convo.

Today's email is 2,006 words, an 8.5-minute read.

In This Edition

📣 March Comm Convo Announced: The Confidence Conversation

Confidence: we either have too much or too little of it. Is there really a “right amount?”

With a tie-in to Women’s History Month, join us on Tue., March 18th @ 1 p.m. ET, and we’ll work it out together.

Led by Biotech CEO Sisterhood Co-Founder Sheila Gujrathi, M.D., The Black Sherpa Founder Nyambe “Yam” Sumbwanyambe, and ​SVP, Strategy & Corporate Affairs Tori Fort, this session will take a deep dive into all things confidence: how we express it, how others perceive it, and how these dynamics influence our effectiveness as leaders in our profession.

T2B Pro and Student members: Log into your account, and get your promo code here

T2B Basic members: RSVP and secure your place here

🎟️ T2Bmeets @ Boston, NJ, and San Diego in March + Discounted MassBio Conference Tickets

NEW: We’re partnering with our friends at MassBio to provide 10 tickets to their State of Possible Conference on March 26th at the deeply discounted price of $500 each (that’s up to 50% off). These are first-come, first-served for members of the T2B community. MassBio membership not required to take advantage. Fill out this form to express your interest.

That’s not all. We have TWO additional volunteer spots available. If you’d be game to craft a 500-900 word blog post for MassBio in exchange for admission to the conference, apply here.

🚀 Applications for the Student & Grads Roundtable Are Still Open

The T2B community is all about enhancing the future of our profession.

As part of that mission, we’re committed to supporting up-and-coming biopharma comms talent.

And our Students & Recent Grads Roundtable is just one way we do that.

The Students & Recent Grads Roundtable seeks to directly influence the future of biopharma comms, allowing participants to lead in fostering greater collaboration, excellence, and innovation among rising T2B professionals.

This roundtable has five seats for T2B members who are themselves aspiring biopharma communicators. Like all our roundtables, this group will create quarterly virtual programs and resources for the broader community. 

And, thanks to the generosity of Geoff Curtis and Marshall Curtis Communications, the five selected students and recent graduates for this roundtable will receive a complimentary T2B Student Pro membership.

🔥 Meet the Culture Connect Roundtable

Part of being an expert communicator is engaging with different stakeholder groups.

And one of the groups that can be most difficult to truly connect with is the one closest to home – our colleagues.

So, let us introduce you to our Culture Connect Roundtable members, who are going to work together to help us all think critically about this important area of corporate affairs:

• Amy Bowman, Sr. Director, Global Internal Communications, Life Sciences, Danaher Corporation

• Maurissa Messier, Communications Consultant

• Stacy Nobles, Communications Strategist

• Carolyn Noyes, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, Spur Therapeutics

• Mandy Zagar, Communications Generalist, Twist Bioscience

We’ve selected these five talented comms pros because of their passion for internal comms and employee engagement, their desire to develop the discipline, and their broad backgrounds covering:

• Big vs. small companies

• Consultants vs. in-house employees

• Internal comms specialists vs. generalists

• Senior vs. mid vs. emerging talent

They’ll be creating quarterly virtual programs and resources for the broader T2B community, the first of which we can look forward to very soon in Q2!

🎉 Corp Advisor Series Applications Now Open; Early Bird Pricing Reminder

There’s not much time left to snap up the Early Bird pricing for this premium offering in Ticket to Biotech’s Leadership Lab!

Facilitated by executive coach Carly Goldsmith, the two-month Corporate Advisor series explores leadership through three lenses – leading the business, yourself, and others – and is designed for biopharma communicators who are in upper middle-management or are a first-time executive leader, have several years of supervisory experience, and are seeking a “safe space” sounding board and real-world knowledge sharing (not only the wins, but the hard truths, too).

Over the course of two months starting in April, you’ll get:

• Six one-hour facilitated meetings with a cohort of up to 18 senior peers.

• Two private one-hour executive coaching sessions.

• Two small-group pod discussions with a subset of peers, for in-depth relationship-building.

Early bird pricing is available through March 14th:

• Self-pay rate: $4,295 $3,650 (15% discount)

• Company-pay rate: $4,995 $4,245 (15% discount)

More details here, and T2B members can apply for the Corporate Advisor Series on a first-come, first-served basis here.

🤖 FREE Fullintel Partnered Seminar: Keeping Up With Industry Trends in the AI Era

How can AI go beyond content creation to help us track industry changes, assess risks, and refine media strategies in life sciences? ​Join us on Tuesday, March 11th @ 12 - 12:30 p.m. to find out.

In partnership with Fullintel, this session will be led by Head of Insights Angela Dwyer, and Head of Product James Rubec. ​Together, they’ll explain how AI is altering the media landscape, highlight new AI-driven workflows that streamline intelligence gathering, and deliver practical ways to apply AI to media monitoring.

We limit the number of partnered seminars we offer because we trust the power of original, authentic content and don’t believe in selling speaking spots. Fullintel, however, is part of our T2B Pro Perks program, and we offer a special version of their product at a discounted rate just for the T2B community.

But this seminar won’t be focused on Fullintel’s products; instead, we’ll break down practical ways to cut through the noise and uncover the most relevant insights when monitoring our competitors, regulatory developments, and emerging scientific trends (without endless manual searching).

We’re delighted to be able to offer this webinar FREE to all T2B members: RSVP here.

🗣️ “Communications Remains the Heartbeat of All Businesses:” Paul Kidwell

Say hello to Paul Kidwell: life science communicator, patient engagement professional, “In Sickness: Men and the Culture of Caregiving” podcast producer and host, content creator, and columnist for Rare Revolution magazine (phew!).

With a career that’s spanned roles in media relations, patient engagement program development/communications, podcast production, and content creation to support biopharmaceutical companies, Paul’s experience in the industry is as wide as it is deep.

But there is one thing that’s remained a constant wherever he’s been working, and that is his belief that communications are the heartbeat of all businesses: “Yes, science drives our industry, but without us communicators standing on top of buildings with our megaphones, all that elegant science is as impactful as the sound of one hand clapping,” he says.

You can read more about Paul in the February edition of Pulse Narratives over on Slack.

📰 February 2025 Biopharma Beats Bulletin: JPM Rewind and Implications for the New Year

There is already so much to unpack in the world of healthcare this year. 

So, our role as communicators has never been more important when it comes to sustaining the public’s trust in healthcare. 

To set the stage for what's to come this year, our Media Minds Roundtable has put together their insights and findings from their interactions with the media at JPM, including:

• The most-asked questions.

• Surprising places they bumped into reporters at this year’s event.

• Which topic took center stage for the very first time.

• Why safety and security were key focuses for media execs.

• And which journalist predictions panned out (sort of…).

Remember: the Biopharma Beats Bulletins are only available to T2B Pro members. Log in to your account to access this content.

👀 Seen on Social

Are we using AI to the best of its ability?

I saw this fascinating post recently from Marketing AI Institute's Chief Content Officer, Mike Kaput, demonstrating how you can use AI not just for writing content but also for critiquing it.

We're seeing more and more examples like this where AI can be used as a thought partner: someone (something?) who can see our blind spots and augment our work. We just have to know what questions to ask. (Hint: it takes experts like us biopharma communicators to know what we don't know!).

Try out Mike’s prompt for yourself: Copy the image in his post into a tool like ChatGPT. Instruct it to use the attached image as the prompt, and paste in your draft content for feedback.

And finally, a note on Rare Disease Day:

FDA-NIH postponed RDD, but it’s still today as far as I’m concerned.

Special shout-out to everyone in our community who works at or with organizations progressing treatments for rare diseases, and especially to those who live with rare diseases or are caregivers.

Thank you for your tireless efforts to help advance the stories that need to be told. It matters.

Lynnea

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