Life sciences PLM needs to start earlier, go longer, and be more collaborative

PharmaVOICE's October cover story is worth a read for anyone in life sciences, especially if you're involved in product life cycle management (PLM). The story, "A Changing Market Environment Requires New PLM Strategies," drills into some of the latest thinking and analysis about PLM strategy and coping with the ongoing challenges of pipeline maintenance.

Writer Robin Robinson featured insight from five industry sources, including Rob Bazemore, President of Janssen Biotech; Chris Bogan, CEO of Best Practices; Andrew Hunter, Senior Manager of Kalypso; Mike Rea, CEO of IDEA Pharma; and yours truly.

More collaborative life sciences technologies to see at DIA 2011 in Chicago

We're Chicago-bound in a few days for the Drug Information Association (DIA) 2011 Annual Meeting, which runs June 19-23. I told you last week that Microsoft has asked us to showcase ProtoSphere and its integration with Lync at its booth, #1111.

In addition, we'll also be demonstrating our integrated compliance training solution with Kaplan EduNeering at the company’s booth, #224. So if you're planning on attending, you'll be able to see two important communication and collaboration technologies that have come to life sciences in the past seven months.

We formally announced the news in a press release today, so I will turn your eyes to that for more details on what we have in store at DIA 2011.

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ProtonMedia to Showcase Collaborative Life Sciences Technologies at Microsoft Booth at DIA 2011

ProtonMedia to demonstrate how life sciences companies can use Microsoft Lync and ProtoSphere together for next-generation virtual communications and collaboration

DIA 2011

LANSDALE, Pa. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- ProtonMedia today announced it will showcase its ProtoSphere application and integration with Microsoft Lync at Microsoft booth #1111 at the Drug Information Association (DIA) 2011 Annual Meeting. Attendees will see how ProtoSphere uses Lync as the heart of its communications features, giving the application the most scalable VoIP of any virtual collaboration environment. ProtonMedia will also be demonstrating its integrated compliance training solution with Kaplan EduNeering at the company's booth, #224, at the show. DIA 2011 takes place June 19-23 in Chicago.

Microsoft booth to showcase collaborative life sciences technologies at DIA 2011 in Chicago

Here's exciting news for anyone interested in creating more effective teams. Microsoft has asked us to showcase ProtoSphere and its integration with Lync at its booth at the Drug Information Association (DIA) 2011 Annual Meeting.

ProtoSphere uses Lync as the heart of its communications features, giving our application the best-sounding and most scalable VoIP of any virtual collaboration environment.

About 8,000 life sciences professionals are expected to gather in Chicago in June for DIA 2011. One of reasons the DIA Annual Meeting attracts levels of attendees that rival a rock concert is because it's one of few, if not the only conference every year where life sciences professionals can be steeped in the latest innovations in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, clinical research, regulatory compliance, IT, and professional development all in one place.

See the latest in virtual learning centers at The Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers 2011 Conference

How would you like to experience first-hand how you can use a virtual immersive environment for life sciences training? Your opportunity to do so is coming up May 11 at The Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers (SPBT) 2011 Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla.

That's when I'll be joining David Werboff, Director, eLearning solutions at Informa Training Partners, to present the Instructional Design Strategies in a Virtual World workshop. David has expertise in a broad range of development technologies, media, and delivery platforms, along with extensive experience in instructional design and quality-centered development processes.

The workshop will show life sciences trainers how they can use virtual immersive environments to hold instructor-led training sessions.

Benefits of this approach will also be brought to the fore, including cost and travel reductions, productivity increases, and improved knowledge sharing and knowledge retention. We'll analyze this approach in contrast to PowerPoint-based lecture and passive, non-interactive, push-down of content to learners online.

How to make virtual speaker programs work

Speaker programs are down 30 percent or more at most pharma companies.

Like many aspects of life sciences today, speaker programs are being cut due to budgetary constraints and the tightening regulatory landscape.

I read a recent article by Bill Cooney in PharmaExec that highlighted this trend, reporting that speaker program activity is down 30 percent or more at most pharmaceutical companies.

Many of the figures and trends that Bill reports align with what we're seeing among the life sciences companies we work with. Travel and logistics costs for remote speaker events are a major area of spend that companies are taking a big ax to.

Access to subject matter experts for in-person events is also becoming increasingly difficult due to new regulations that curtail potential for conflicts of interest between doctors and pharmaceutical companies.

For instance, states such as Massachusetts and Vermont ban medical device companies from giving physicians most gifts, including compensation for their travel, lodging, and meals. And if the pending Physician Payment Sunshine Act (PPSA) is passed, it would require medical product companies in all states to report physician payments and gifts worth more than $10.

These factors are driving some life sciences companies to hold speaker programs virtually. It can significantly reduce or eliminate travel costs, and it can be inherently compliant with transfer of value regulations, such as compensation for meals.

In his article, Bill discusses some ways for making virtual speaker programs work. He highlights the importance of sharing content that addresses evidence-based medicine and other clinical topics, and having strong sales force support.

I agree with Bill's advice. We're seeing similar takeaways among the life sciences companies we're working with. I'd encourage you to flip over to Bill's article for his details on these points.

We're also seeing a few other best practices emerging among our customers in this arena that I thought would be great to share. Here are some things they've told us have contributed to making their virtual speaker programs work:

Use a platform that supports high interactivity and engagement. You could say I'm biased because I am with a technology vendor. However, I'm mentioning this point not to plug our product, but because it's something we've heard from many of our customers. The technology decision is crucial to successful virtual speaker programs. Our customers have found it's important to use a technology that's not too complicated, and that provides a high level of interactivity and engagement. This helps foster adoption of the platform, and enables them to meet their objectives of improved knowledge sharing and knowledge retention.

Hold internal sales meetings in the platform. One of the best ways to teach your sales force how to use the new technology is to hold internal meetings in the same platform you're holding outbound KOL and SME activities. This helps the sales team become very familiar with the tool for their own training and internal communications, so they are knowledgeable of the platform when they use it with their customers.

Integrate virtual activities into a holistic events program. We're seeing our customers build integrated events programs comprised of both virtual and in-person events, depending on their business need and the task at hand. For instance, some are finding their virtual environment works well for quick product updates and other more frequent touches. From a time and cost perspective, it's a no-brainer to get 12, 15, or 20 people together in a virtual space for an interactive training update or survey, as opposed to making plans to fly them to a remote location, coordinating their schedules, booking flights/hotels, etc.

Bring organizational knowledge into the environment. Our customers are integrating content, most notably SharePoint resources, into their virtual environment. SharePoint is becoming the standard for document management in life sciences, if it hasn't already. Sharing and collaborating on these resources is a crucial part of KOL and SME programs, making it an imperative to have them available in their virtual workplace.

Measure results and make adjustments. Our customers are showing a high level of interest in surveying to understand what worked and what didn't with their virtual speaker program approaches. We're seeing more customers use the polling function in ProtoSphere, which can be customized with a series of questions to gather information on user experience and feedback. This information is crucial to improving their virtual speaker programs.

These are the some of the common pieces of feedback we're hearing from our customers. If you've participated in a virtual speaker program, what have you found to work and not work? Anything you'd recommend?

ProViWo research update: the transcript

Earlier this week we posted our latest podcast with Dr. Petra Bosch, a professor at Aalto University who is studying the use of professional virtual worlds with her colleague, Dr. Anu Sivunen. The first phase of their research project, "ProViWo," is now complete, and we learned about what they studied and their findings. If you'd rather read through our interview, here's the complete transcript, proofed for clarity.

Virtual worlds' challenges and benefits found in ProViWo phase one research

Back in March, we interviewed Dr. Petra Bosch-Sijtsema about her new research project, which is studying how virtual worlds can be used for professional collaboration, and whether virtual worlds can enhance productivity in globally distributed teams. It's aptly dubbed Professional Collaboration and Productivity in Virtual Worlds (ProViWo).

At the time, Dr. Bosch and her colleague, Dr. Anu Sivunen, were in the midst of the initial phase of their research, looking at how companies in the U.S., Asia, and Europe were using virtual worlds for business.

That phase is now complete. All told, they interviewed 44 professionals at companies using virtual worlds, including those in the high-tech, energy, pharmaceutical, and medical industries. They focused their interviews on the challenges and benefits of virtual worlds adoption, and unearthed some interesting discoveries which Dr. Bosch was kind enough to share with us in a podcast.

Hit play below to catch our most recent interview with Dr. Bosch, where we learn about how her first research phase went, what she and Dr. Sivunen found, and what's next for the project.



They're working on publishing their initial findings in research journals, and we'll let you know when that becomes available. We'll be continuing to follow their progress, so keep your eyes on our blog for the latest on ProViWo.

Dr. Karl Kapp: "the tipping point for 3D will be in the healthcare industry"

My bud Dr. Karl Kapp hit the nail on the head in his blog post on Monday. He looked at the meaning and implication behind Microsoft giving Merck and ProtonMedia its Life Sciences Innovation Award last week.

I thought it was a spot-on analysis of the life sciences industry and why it's leading the adoption of 3-D virtual collaboration environments. As Karl wrote, "the tipping point for 3D will be in the healthcare industry."

I won't steal Karl's thunder here, so swing over to his post for his full analysis. Thanks for the thoughtful evaluation, Karl.

Microsoft gives Merck and ProtonMedia Life Sciences Innovation Award 2010

Virtual model of our Microsoft award

So Tuesday night at the Microsoft Life Sciences reception at the DIA conference ended up being a whole lot more exciting -- and rewarding -- than I think anyone at ProtonMedia expected. Microsoft gave out its Life Sciences Innovation Awards, and Merck and ProtonMedia were joint winners.

Microsoft recognized the 3-D virtual scientific poster session we developed together, which has continued to garner attention among the industry and media. (You might remember that Bio-IT World gave Merck its Best Practice Award earlier this year for the project.)

Microsoft gave us a Life Sciences Innovation award statue at the reception, which we had to virtualize. ;) There's our Creative Team's handy work on the right.

The Microsoft Life Sciences Innovation Awards honor companies that demonstrate new solutions, software, and devices to revolutionize medicine, bring therapeutic breakthroughs to market faster, fight serious ailments, improve health, and enhance people’s quality of life.

You can read about Microsoft's coverage of its awards by flipping to its press release. And you can also catch our press release below for more information about why we were recognized.

Thank you to Microsoft, on behalf of us and Merck, for recognizing us!!

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Merck and ProtonMedia Win Microsoft Life Sciences Innovation Award 2010

Microsoft Recognizes Merck’s Industry-First Scientific Poster Session Held in ProtonMedia’s ProtoSphere 3-D Virtual Environment

Drug Information Association 46th Annual Meeting

LANSDALE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Microsoft Corp. has named Merck and Company, Inc. and ProtonMedia winners of the company’s Life Sciences Innovation Awards 2010. The awards, announced at the Drug Information Association’s (DIA) 46th annual meeting in Washington, D.C., were given in recognition of innovative solutions in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry. The awards honor companies that have demonstrated the successful application of available software and devices to revolutionize medicine, bring therapeutic breakthroughs to market faster, fight serious ailments, improve health, and enhance people’s quality of life. Microsoft recognized Merck’s innovative use of ProtonMedia’s ProtoSphere 3-D virtual environment to hold the pharmaceutical industry’s first virtual scientific poster session.

ProtonMedia and LiquidHub partner to combine ProtoSphere with SharePoint and OCS

The DIA 2010 conference kicked off this week from Washington, D.C. And this morning we made our big announcement from the show: our new partnership with LiquidHub.

LiquidHub is a global technology consulting and systems integration firm that focuses on health care, life sciences, financial services, and other major sectors. We're working together to combine ProtoSphere with Microsoft SharePoint and OCS (Office Communications Server) at life sciences organizations worldwide.

The solutions we jointly develop will give life sciences companies a virtual workplace that is based in ProtoSphere and integrates with SharePoint and OCS. More details on that to come, but in the meantime, you can read our press release announcing our partnership for some other info.

Speaking of Microsoft, tonight is the Microsoft Life Sciences reception at DIA. I'm looking forward to attending -- and not just for the beer and food. ;) It promises to bring together a great group of folks from Microsoft and across many areas of life sciences, including drug discovery, medical devices, clinical trials, and others.

If you're planning on coming and want to say hi, keep an eye out for a guy that looks like this avatar. And if that doesn't help, just look for an old hippy guitarist. ;)

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ProtonMedia and LiquidHub Form Technology and Services Partnership

Companies team to provide life sciences organizations 3-D virtual collaboration and communication solutions integrated with Microsoft SharePoint and OCS

LANSDALE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ProtonMedia, the developer of the ProtoSphere virtual collaboration environment for the high-performance workplace, and LiquidHub, a global technology consulting and systems integration firm, have formed a technology and services partnership. Under the terms of the agreement, ProtonMedia’s ProtoSphere technology will be the basis for 3-D virtual collaboration environments. LiquidHub will provide consultancy, integration, and deployment services to combine ProtoSphere with SharePoint and OCS at life sciences organizations around the world. The result will give life sciences companies an integrated, high-performance workplace that lets them collaborate and accelerate decision-making across their product lifecycles.

Look for us at the SPBT and DIA 2010 conferences

It's been a busy quarter for us as far as industry conferences go. ShareFEST, the Kaplan EduNeering Knowledge Summit, and ASTD 2010 are in the books, and next on tap are the Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers (SPBT) Annual Conference and the Drug Information Association (DIA) Annual Meeting.

SPBT 2010 kicked off today in Orlando, Fla. If you're unfamiliar with the organization, SPBT is a worldwide nonprofit that supports trainers at pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, and diagnostic companies. Its annual conference is packed with workshops and sessions covering new strategies and technologies for employee training, leadership development, and team development.

If you're going to be at the show on Wednesday, I highly recommend attending the "Utilizing 3D Virtual Worlds and Informal Learning in Employee Training and Collaboration" session. I'll be presenting (shameless plug!! :P), but that's not the only reason to sit in.

I'll be joined on stage by Cindy Skirvin, our newest board member and Partner of Strategy and Transformation Workforce and Talent Solutions for IBM Global Business Services. We'll be discussing how 3-D virtual worlds are being used by life sciences enterprises to foster collaboration and learning among employees.

We'll talk about how trainers and learners can interact and collaborate with one another in a virtual environment, and how that environment allows for persistence of knowledge beyond an actual scheduled event.

We'll also review a case study of a pharmaceutical company that held a scientific poster session in a virtual world, and the outcomes and feedback from the event. Our workshop is slated for Wednesday, June 9 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., so mark your schedules! :)

Next week is the DIA conference in the nation's capital. I won't be speaking at DIA, but ProtonMedia is co-sponsoring the Microsoft Life Sciences reception on Tuesday, June 15. We have a limited number of slots open if you'd like to join us. Just let Lisa Yablonski know if you'd like a spot.

If you're involved in the discovery, development, and lifecycle management of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and similar products, I'd recommend putting the DIA meeting on your list. It's the premiere event for global drug discovery and development, and attracts about 500 exhibiting companies and 8,000 attendees every year.

Registration for SPBT is closed, but you can still sign up online for DIA. Hope to see you at SPBT or DIA, or both!!

How pharma and biotech have reacted to the recession

New reports are coming out on the effects of the recession on pharmaceuticals and biotech. And for a change, things aren't looking so grim. The world’s established biotech companies reached profitability for the first time in history in 2009, according to Ernst and Young's Beyond borders: global biotechnology report 2010.

However, companies continue to face a challenging funding climate, causing them to operate under what E&Y calls a "new normal." More analysis is in Ernst and Young's press release announcing the report findings, and one point in particular stood out for me.

"The biggest opportunities in this new normal will come from increasing efficiency: more efficient ways to fund innovation and achieve returns for investors, better outcomes for every dollar of health care spending, and more efficient R&D and operations at drug companies," states the release.

Maureen Martino also picked up on this point in her coverage of the report on FierceBiotech. I'd encourage you to give her article a read. In my opinion though, some biotechs began operating under this new normal before 2009. As I wrote in the comments on Maureen's article, some of them were using ProtoSphere to create high-performance virtual workplaces for global teaming.

These companies saw the trend to increase efficiency coming long before the economy flopped. We were already working together to get them communicating and collaborating in ProtoSphere to improve the productivity of their dispersed workforces. Today, biotech, pharma, and other life sciences companies alike are investing more in virtual collaboration.

Ernst and Young's report gives us an international view of the biotech industry. But it's also worthwhile to look at regional trends. Medical News Today published a good roundup of how the recession is affecting biotechs across the nation, looking at regions such as Illinois, Florida, and California.

There are some solid stats in there about jobs and growth. By and large, the numbers are showing increases in employment in most areas. However, one thing these companies shouldn't lose sight of is how to ensure their new and growing workforce is efficient and productive.

I explained this more in a comment on the article, but the gist is this: To really cut the cost of global collaboration, you've got to cut the cost of travel without cutting the ability to speed collaborative decision-making throughout the product lifecycle. That requires virtual collaborative workplaces. This is the impetus behind our new partnership with RWD.

So give Medical News Today's article a read-through, and then take a look at my thoughts. What's your opinion? For those of you in biotech and pharma, is your workforce growing? Are you putting plans in place to ensure teams can cost-effectively communicate and collaborate?

IBM's Cindy Skirvin joins our Executive Advisory Board

Cindy Skirvin

ProtonMedia's Executive Advisory Board is continuing to grow at a healthy clip. I'm very proud to announce that Cindy Skirvin is our latest member. She's the Partner of Strategy and Transformation Workforce and Talent Solutions for IBM Global Business Services. She joins Cisco’s Greg Pelton and Microsoft’s Sam Batterman around our advisory board table.

Cindy's sweet spot is deploying and running human capital management and corporate training and learning programs in life sciences. She's spent about 15 years consulting to organizations including Merck, Pfizer, Amgen, Abbott, and Johnson & Johnson. Having her on our board is an ideal fit for us, as we continue to develop ProtoSphere to meet the human capital management needs of life sciences companies.

If you're looking for more details on Cindy's background and what she'll be bringing to the table, take a peek at the press release we issued to announce Cindy's joining. We're also working on interviewing our new board members in turn, so watch the blog for that.

Welcome to the team, Cindy!

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ProtonMedia Adds IBM’s Cindy Skirvin to Executive Advisory Board

Partner at IBM Global Business Services will provide strategic insight into the continued development of ProtoSphere for helping enterprises improve human capital management

LANSDALE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ProtonMedia, the developer of the ProtoSphere virtual collaboration environment for the high-performance workplace, today announced Cindy Skirvin has joined the company’s Executive Advisory Board. Skirvin is Partner of Strategy and Transformation Workforce and Talent Solutions for IBM Global Business Services.

Bio-IT World gives Merck its Best Practice Award for virtual poster session held in ProtoSphere

Virtual 3-D model of Merck's Bio-IT World award

The kudos continues to roll in around Merck's use of ProtoSphere to produce a virtual poster session.

It's earned recognition from the editors of Bio-IT World, who just gave Merck its Best Practice Award in the Editors' Choice Award category. Congratulations to the Merck team!

One of our friends from Merck was in our offices yesterday and he brought the award with him. We snapped a photo, and our design team had a little fun rendering the award into a virtual 3-D model in ProtoSphere. So no, it's really not bigger than Dom ... it's just enlarged to show detail? Hey, I did say virtual reality. ;)

Bio-IT World’s Best Practices Awards recognize organizations for their outstanding innovations and excellence in the use of technologies, practices, and novel business strategies that will advance drug discovery, development, biomedical research, and clinical trials.

This year’s Bio-IT World Best Practices Awards attracted a record 74 entrants, including a range of large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and niche service providers.

You can read more about the awards and winners by flipping over to Bio-IT World's coverage online. The project was also detailed in a recent Nature Chemistry article. And as regular readers know, we bought a small supply of them, which we're providing free of charge. However, we're just about out. There are a few left if you want one. Just hit our website to fill out the request form.

Congrats again to Merck!

This is your brain on PowerPoint

Take a look at this image published in The New York Times yesterday. It's an actual PowerPoint slide created by the U.S. Army for Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the leader of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. It shows the American military strategy in Afghanistan.

I'm no military leader, but even if I was, I still don't think I could make heads or tails of what the heck the strategy is based on that big blob of spaghetti on the screen. To call it overwhelming is an understatement.

But think about this for a moment: That PowerPoint image could also be your global supply chain. Or your network of TV broadcasters and correspondents. Or the flight patterns over Europe after the eruption of the Icelandic volcano. Or any one of a number of complex business systems.

This PowerPoint image doesn't work at any of those levels. Why? Because it's a 2-D depiction, and we don't think in 2-D. We think in 3-D. We work in 3-D. We live in 3-D. And it's time we start communicating and collaborating in 3-D.

Many of our business communication and collaboration models have been stuck in what I'll call "flatland" for generations. If you're sharing information with PowerPoint, that's flatland. If you're learning through an e-Learning course, that's flatland. If you're meeting using an online conferencing service, that's flatland.

These flat modes have no depth; they can't be used to solve complex multi-dimensional problems. The Pentagon is finding that out the hard way as it tries to map a very complicated problem -- our Afghan military strategy -- on a PowerPoint graphic.

This isn't isolated to the U.S. military. It's an issue we see in our businesses every day. We see it with pharmaceutical companies, for example, and their complex research and sales force processes. We see it with any data or process that is complex or difficult to understand.

Pretty version of the LIFE SCIENCES 2010 transcript

I know, I know, it took us longer to create the PDF of the transcript from our LIFE SCIENCES 2010 event than it has taken us to create a 3-D virtual environment in ProtoSphere ... but here it is at long last!!! This transcript officially caps off our coverage of the event. Feel free to download, read, save, and share it.

It's packed with a lot of great information about improving knowledge transfer, speeding collaborative decision-making, and creating high-performance workplaces in life sciences. You'll get thoughts from moderator Erica Driver, ThinkBalm industry analyst, plus all the panelists, which included:

* Thomas Kaney, M.B.A., M.H.A., M.S.; Change Management Lead, Mandala Partners International (formerly Sr. VP, Human Resources and Strategic Planning, GlaxoSmithKline)

* Melanie W. Kittrell, Ph.D.; Executive Director, Global Customer Strategy and Channels, Knowledge Management and Innovation, Merck

* Dr. Tony O'Driscoll, Professor of the Practice, Duke University Fuqua School of Business, and co-author of the new book, “Learning in 3D”

* Sam Batterman, Business Intelligence Evangelist, Pharmaceutical/Life Science, Microsoft (formerly U.S. Sales Force project leader for CRM/SFA at Merck)

* And me

For all of our coverage of the event, including the video, podcast, photos, and more, hit our LS2010 label.

Get a FREE reprint of Nature Chemistry's coverage of Merck's ProtoSphere use

A few weeks ago we told you about how Nature Chemistry covered Merck's use of ProtoSphere in its March issue. The publication is offering it for an $18 download.

If you're about to download the article, hold your horses!! We just bought a batch of reprints, and are doling them out on a first-come-first-serve basis. If you'd like one, visit our Web site and fill out the short form. We'll send one along to the e-mail address you provide.

We've already given some away, so please, act ASAP if you want one. We have a limited number of reprints available, so the sooner you request a copy, the better your chance of getting one.

If you miss out on the freebie copy, you'll still be able to get the article. But you'll have to fork over the 18 bucks. Request one today and it can be on us!

Hope everyone finds the article insightful. If you have questions about something you read, feel free to contact us. We're happy to chat.

ShareFEST Conference 2010 photos from the floor

Thought I'd share some photos we snapped while we were at the ShareFEST Conference in Philadelphia last week. These are also posted to our Flickr page. Enjoy!

Milling about the show floor

Meeting and greeting. Can you tell it was a sunny day?

Back from ShareFEST with coverage, videos, reactions, and takeaways

FROM THE FIELD: Bamboo Nation covers my presentation

The weekend has given me a chance to mull over the ShareFEST conference. I think the show went well for us. I'm excited about the new connections we made and thought-provoking conversations we had while we were there.

I'm writing a more detailed post about how ShareFEST went, and things I observed from my interactions with attendees and other speakers. I'll be posting that soon, so check back for that.

We normally like to bring back a boatload of videos from the conferences we go to. But this time around we had a limited number of passes, so unfortunately our usual blogging crew couldn't accompany us. (Sorry guys!!)

That said, though, I did manage to interview a few folks and record my conversations with the camera on my iPhone. We'll have those for you as soon as I figure out how to share them. :P I'm sure Steve Jobs made it very simple. Just gotta do it.

Meanwhile, click over to this Bamboo Nation article to hear how my presentation went. Writer John Anderson summed up my presentation about Merck's use of ProtoSphere, and highlighted some of the key metrics that Merck measured after their event.

By the way, if you think the photo of me is fuzzy, it's not your eyes or your computer screen. Either the cameraman had a shaky hand, or I was moving around a lot -- probably the latter because I always get excited talking about ProtoSphere. :-)

Also, if you weren't able to get to ShareFEST this year, I recommend you plan to attend for next year. The event was sold out. At some points during the day, it was wall-to-wall people. By our estimation, there were about 300 professionals from life sciences in attendance. There were a lot of great presentations from companies with leading-edge innovations. Definitely a keeper for us!

From ShareFEST: Catching up with Microsoft's Mike Gannotti

Yesterday was a great day. As you probably know, I'm at the ShareFEST Conference in Center City Philadelphia, networking with life sciences professionals and demonstrating how ProtoSphere can help them speed collaborative decision-making around all phases of their product life cycle by getting more out of their SharePoint investment.

One person I had the pleasure of chatting with was Mike Gannotti, Principle Technology Specialist at Microsoft, and the company's chief SharePoint evangelist in life sciences. He sat in on my presentation yesterday morning about Merck's use of ProtoSphere to conduct the industry's first virtual poster session. I also demonstrated ProtoSphere's SharePoint functionality and how users can bring documents into their virtual environment using the Media Carousel.

My presentation went great, and it made Mike's Twitter stream. Here's what he had to say.