Consultancy or Commodity?  A special HCA members' debate session
Come and debate some potentially controversial issues and the implications for the future of our industry

Date: Wednesday 28th November 6:30 pm reception for 7 pm start.  Parliament Suite, Marriott Waterloo, London

As announced in the October newsletter, we are holding a special members' debate before Christmas around some of the key implications arising from this year's benchmarking surveys amongst consultancy and pharma industry members, with its special focus on procurement.  The resulting discussion document is in the final stages of preparation and will be made available on the night to all who attend the special debate session (and will be made available to all HCA members the day after).

The session will start with a short summary presentation on the key issues arising from the joint research, and the subsequent debate session will focus on their future ramifications for the practice of healthcare communications.  We are delighted that some key senior people have kindly agreed to springboard the discussions from their different perspectives in procurement, in-house communications and consultancy respectively.  They are:

• Collette Goldrick, Pfizer
• Sioban Shortt, BMS
• Emma Sergeant, Ogilvy Healthworld
• Karen Winterhalter, Onyx Health

We will be providing free places for up to three people per HCA member organisation, further members will be charged at £25 per head.  Refreshments will be provided.  Given the importance of this debate to all in our industry we envisage a lot of interest, so if you want to register please do so by Tuesday 13th November.

I hope to see as many of you as possible on the 28th for what should be a thought-provoking session.

Kind regards - Julia Cook, HCA Chair