Reed Expands Medical Ed Holdings

By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 6/12/2006

Reed Exhibitions will operate a more robust batch of medical education events with the purchase of Contemporary Forums, which annually produces nearly three dozen continuing medical education conferences in 14 states.

Reed Exhibitions North America President Chet Burchett said the acquisition, for an undisclosed price, had been in the works for some time. "We went out and found them. Contemporary Forums is an excellent company in terms of quality. In their space, they are very, very well respected," he said.

Dwight Stump and Margaret Blair, who co-founded the Dublin, Calif.-based company in 1982, along with their 26 employees will join Reed Exhibitions. Stump has a medical background and Blair and her three program managers are registered nurses.

"We're excited about the potential of this exciting combination of forces," said Stump.

While the company's mission won't change, Stump said Reed's involvement will open the door to new resources, investment and partnerships with journals produced by Elsevier Health Science, a sister company of Reed Exhibitions.

Contemporary Forum conferences generally attract from 250 to 900 attendees and are geared to medical professionals working directly with patients, rather than on research.

"We try to deal with prevalent issues. For instance, we added a meeting on obesity because of all of the lay press and medical press coverage on the problem," Stump said.

Burchett said there is synergy between Contemporary Forums' conferences and those put on by Reed's Medical Education Group. For instance, Contemporary Forums hosts conferences on obstetrics, gynecology, contraception and neonatal care, while Reed is launching the Women's Health Congress this fall.

The acquired company also holds a conference on oncology, an area Reed has targeted with its Oncology World Congress, launched last November in New York in cooperation with Elsevier Health Science. The exhibitions unit partners with Elsevier to produce the Supportive Oncology and Community Oncology conferences. The inaugural Community Oncology event, held Feb. 8–10 in Washington, D.C., drew 300 attendees, according to Reed. Supportive Oncology is set to launch Sept. 28–30 at Chicago's InterContinental Hotel.

Reed Exhibitions established its medical education group in 2004 with Interphex and Interphex Puerto Rico. Interphex in 2005 ranked No. 114 on the Tradeshow Week 200 with a 226,152 net square foot showfloor with 869 exhibitors. In 2004 it featured a 211,241 net sq. ft. floor with 903 exhibitors.

The group now puts on 11 exhibitions, conferences and congresses in the United States and Puerto Rico, said Burchett. The count will rise to 12 with next year's launch of PharmaMedDevice, to be collocated with Interphex April 24–26, 2007, at New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

In February, Reed Exhibitions Senior Vice President Vinnie Polito was put in charge of global strategy for the medical education unit. Since then, the company has firmed up plans to launch a Chinese version of Interphex Nov. 15–17 in Qing Dao alongside API China, which usually draws 1,000 exhibitors and 20,000 attendees. An Indian version is planned Sept. 13–15, 2007, at the Bombay Exhibition Center in Mumbai.

When Polito was promoted, Megan Forrester was brought in from Diversified Business Communications to serve as senior vice president for Reed's North American Healthcare and Life Sciences group. She will be in charge of integrating the Contemporary Forums properties, which will continue to operate under its own name.

As well as national continuing education conferences, Contemporary Forums also offers a self-study program. Its events are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education and the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

The company will continue to manage conference operations, such as registration and site selection. Stump said the arrangement ensures customer continuity. "What we do from a public standpoint isn't going to change drastically," he said.

Added Burchett: "They are a very top-notch organization. It's a very well-respected brand," he said. "We bring them a lot of resources and support for growth. They bring us expertise."