In a sea of booths at a trade show, what’s the best way to make sure your display gets the results you want in terms of leads that ultimately bring in new deals? Organizers of the Oklahoma exhibit at the giant BIO 2008 International Convention in San Diego believe a big part of the answer lies in having your scientists on hand to press the flesh and respond to technical inquiries. State economic development officials made sure that at least two scientists were working the Oklahoma pavilion whenever the BIO 2008 exhibit floor was open, basing their strategy on their experience at the prior year’s BIO show in Boston. That’s when Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist Tim Mather was working the state’s exhibit booth, and an attendee wandering through posed some questions about the state of research in Oklahoma. As the lone scientist staffing the booth at the time, Mather was asked to provide some details for the curious visitor. It turned out that the attendee was actually an official with the National Institutes of Health who was seeking candidates for a special NIH drug development initiative. “I understood immediately that what he was doing was exactly what several of our [researchers] need in terms of taking advantage of the open access he was offering to NIH’s toxicity, pharmacology, even synthetic chemistry capabilities,” Mather said. As a result of that random meeting, Oklahoma researchers were invited to hear about the program first hand a couple of months later when the NIH official came to the state. Having learned that valuable lesson, when the 2008 show opened, the state delegation was waiting with six scientists staffing their exhibit. Go to: NewsOK

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