It’s Nearly Here! ASAP’s Virtual Summit About to Start

Have you registered yet? I hope so, because it’s almost here. ASAP’s first-ever virtual Global Alliance Summit begins Tuesday, June 23, with livestream sessions running June 23–25 and on-demand sessions available—well, on demand, anytime you want to view them.

As usual, the leading lights in alliance management and partnering will be sharing their insights with the ASAP community, along with some special guests who will provide a look into aspects of the partnering landscape you may be less familiar with.

People like Dr. Louis B. Harrison, MD, FASTRO, of the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. He’s the chair of the center’s radiation oncology department, but he also happens to be its chief partnership officer, and he’ll be talking about the kinds of partnerships a cancer center engages in and the challenges and opportunities that arise from those engagements. He’ll be leading off day one of the Summit, along with Tiffani Bova, growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce, whose presentation, “The Untapped Gold Mine of Building Trust, Unconventional Affiliations, and Iteration-Based Partnerships,” looks to be a highlight.

And by the way, aren’t you itching to know the winners of the Alliance Excellence Awards? I know I am, and fortunately the waiting is almost over as these exemplary partnerships will be showcased on the first day as well, with Ard-Pieter de Man, CSAP, PhD, professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and coauthor of the recent book How to Survive the Organizational Revolution, handing out the awards.

Day two will see a presentation by Steve Steinhilber, global vice president ecosystem development at Equinix—and an alliance and ecosystem veteran with years of experience at Cisco under his belt—called “Creating Alliances and Digital Ecosystem Capabilities in an Increasingly Platform-Enabled and Interconnected World.” This will be followed by what should be a fascinating panel discussion moderated by Jessica Wadd of Vantage Partners and featuring panelists from across industries, “Managing Power Imbalances: How to Navigate Partnerships Between Large and Small Organizations.” (Does that sound like a perennial topic of interest?) Finally, Wednesday will also boast a talk by Carl DCosta, worldwide general manager of partner success at Blue Yonder, “Foundation for Partner Success in the Digital World.”

Thursday kicks off with another panel, this one moderated by Jan Twombly, president of The Rhythm of Business, dealing with commercial-stage alliances in biopharma and their challenges and featuring nearly a who’s who of pharma alliance leaders: ASAP’s board chair Brooke Paige, formerly vice president of alliance management at Pear Therapeutics; David S. Thompson, chief alliance officer at Eli Lilly and Company; and Andrew Yeomans, global alliance lead at UCB. In addition, Larry Walsh, CEO and chief analyst at The 2112 Group, will speak on how to include everyone in the sales process in today’s interconnected, omni-channel, partnering-everywhere world, while Dan Rippey of Microsoft and Amit Singh of WorkSpan will give an inside look at how Microsoft’s partner-to-partner (P2P) program works to connect the ecosystem and power business growth and competitive advantage.

OK, that’s the three days in a nutshell—but that’s just the livestream content. Did I mention on-demand sessions? The list is extensive, and you’ll want to check a good number of them out. Like these:

• Session 301: “The Profit Power of Collaboration,” by Robert Porter Lynch, The Warren Company
• Session 403: “Resiliency in Alliance Management: How Amgen-UCB Managed the ‘Roller Coaster Ride’ of a Long-standing Alliance,” by Tracy Blois, Amgen; and Alistair Dixon, UCB
• Session 404: “Integrated Joint Alliance Marketing Best Practices: How to Establish Joint Marketing Moments That Drive Impact,” by Liz Fuller, Citrix
• Session 501: “How 5G Will Transform and Disrupt Business and Partners,” moderated by Stacy Conrad, TPx, with panelists Manoj Bhatia, Verizon; Pradeep Bhardwaj, Syniverse; and Andreas Westh, Ericsson
• Session 503: “Marketplaces: The New Buying Centers in the Age of As-a-Service,” by Glen Kuhne, Ingram Cloud Blue; and Roger Williams, Citrix
• Session 504: “The Strategic Partner Executive of the Future and the Skills Needed for Success,” moderated by Norma Watenpaugh, Phoenix Consulting Group, with panelists Rafael Contreras, ServiceNow; Jim Chow, Google Cloud; and Greg Fox, WorkSpan
• Session 602: “Demystifying the Ecosystem: An Interactive Conversation,” by Claudia Kuzma, Protiviti; and Nancy Ridge, Ridge Innovative
• Session 702: “Big Pharma M&A and Alliance Portfolios,” moderated by Adam Kornetsky, Vantage Partners, with panelists Mark Coflin and Jeff Hurley, Takeda; Dana Hughes, Pfizer; and Chris Urban, Amgen
• Session 703: “Absorbing and Facilitating Change: Managing Your Partner Program During Organizational Upheaval,” by Ben Anderson and Susan Cleveland, Thomson Reuters

And while there’s nothing like “being there”—in this case virtually—whether you’re able to participate in the livestream presentations, on-demand sessions, and interactive roundtables that are part of this year’s Summit, you’ll want to check this space during the coming days and weeks, as my colleague Jon Lavietes and I will be blogging both livestream and on-demand sessions to give those who missed it a taste of what’s going on. We hope to whet some appetites for more of this kind of programming, as well as to showcase some of the great content on offer at this year’s virtual Summit.

So tune in, and stay tuned!