Digital Discovery Meet Up - the first Discngine community gathering
The last year and a half, we all went through a challenging period that forced us to move working habits, tasks, and relationships with clients to the virtual space. We managed well to keep the professional matters going during this process, but what about casual ones?
We meet with our clients every day online, spend long hours working together and prosper, but how much do we truly connect on a human level during all this time? How often do we casually chat with each other outside the first "Hi, how are you" meeting minutes?
At Discngine, we felt the need to reconnect with our community, and we know that they felt the same! That's why on October 21st, we organized the Discngine Meetup and invited all our customers and partners. With over 120 participants from the USA and Europe, a 3-hour agenda with the "Digital Discovery" theme, and an interactive virtual platform Gather, we succeeded in satisfying the need to reunite again.
“I was thrilled by the idea to bring together people we appreciate coming from all over the world. I was even happier when I saw all these people joining and enjoying our event.
It was time for us to reconnect, and the success of this first edition proves it. We will not stop here for sure!”
The Digital Discovery theme of the Meetup covered all the topics that our company and community are mutually interested in. It included three insightful tracks:
Opportunities & Challenges in Rational Drug Design and Discovery
Lab informatics in the Cloud
Scientific informatics services in the Cloud era
The event kicked off with an inspiring plenary session held by Matt Hahn, Labvoice Founder and CEO. He highlighted the positive impact of digitalization on life science R&D and its importance for successful project outcomes, especially in remote teams.
After the plenary, attendees split up into rooms to follow the tracks of interest. Each track consisted of 2 talks and one roundtable that featured our customers as speakers and panelists. We were happy to leave the stage to them, knowing that specific challenges are best addressed among people in similar situations.
In total, 17 speakers from the pharma industry presented their work and shared their ideas with everyone. On our side, we were moderating sessions and coordinating the event to maximize the experience. It was brilliant!
To give you a flavor of our Meetup setting on Gather Town, let's start with its unique access. Namely, before arriving at the platform, you get to dress up your minimized digital self – you become an avatar.
Once you are in, you have the power to walk around the main hall and talk rooms, visit virtual booths, and even join the afterparty at the beach.
By walking, you can randomly bump into peers, which quickly triggers spontaneous talks. The agenda allowed some time for such gaming, and thanks to that, we managed to create an engaging atmosphere and an experience you get during an in-person gathering.
To further mimic the real-life experience, in the middle of the main hall, we organized a virtual exhibition supported by our partners Dassault Systèmes Biovia, KNIME, Labvoice, Nanome, Revvity Signals and Schrodinger.
They were showing live demos of their solutions from the virtual booth. That's how attendees were able to learn about innovative technologies, get firsthand information, and ask questions.
Summary
In line with our company culture, we brought together people we work and collaborate with to reconnect and catch up on innovation in life science R&D informatics, after a long break carried by the wind of change.
Discngine Digital Discovery Meetup was a perfect opportunity for our community to exchange thoughts, share ideas and knowledge, and build relationships.
We are thrilled that our first such event was a great success!
“No.1 Content: It was such an interesting event with a good balance between customers and partners.
No. 2 The gamified platform!
No. 3 Casual style and atmosphere - not a very formal and strict “show off” type of conference but rather a family-like event.”
Donation
Huge thanks to everyone who attended our first edition and made the event so lively and joyful.
We'd like to especially thank all the speakers who actively participated in the Meetup. Thanks to the Discngine partnership with GlobalGiving, each speaker will get the opportunity to support the non-profits of their choice!
Discngine donated 5.000 € to support local charities and important causes worldwide!
We’ll do it again!
The Discngine Meet up event plan for the next year is in development! And we would like you to be part of the organization!
Share with us your thoughts such as which topic would you like to cover in the next edition? Would you prefer an interactive online platform again or an in-person meeting? or similar.
Feel free to write in the comment below!