25th Annual Lorne Proteomics Symposium

The 2020 Symposium was the 25th year the Lorne Proteomics Symposium has run. This landmark meeting was successfully organised with a new ECR (early career researcher) committee whose aim was to bring new ideas and innovations to what was already a well-regarded meeting across the Proteomics field.

 
 

The Brief

Working with a new committee always presents new challenges as we need to ensure expectations from both sides align while maintaining the great reputation of the symposium.

ASN Events have successfully partnered with the APS society for 20 years, both as their society secretariat and as their conference organiser.

Key client goals and expectations for the symposium:

  • Introduce new ideas to make the symposium more modern, sustainable and community minded 

  • Celebrate the 25-year history of Proteomics

  • Showcase International and National speaker talent

  • Pay homage to the past presidents and key members of APS

In 2019 the APS society successfully ran the 18th Human Proteome Organization World Congress (HUPO) in Adelaide, Australia. This large-scale international meeting was held only 5 months prior to the Lorne Proteomics Symposium and there was concern that this would decrease our delegate numbers and sponsorship result.

Making it happen

We wanted to ensure the 25th anniversary of the Lorne Proteomics Symposium was a memorable, not to be missed celebration. Success was almost guaranteed with the experience from past committees, fresh eyes from an eager ECR committee, and the natural beauty of Lorne.

To guarantee maximum interest and excitement for the Symposium program we begun planning onsite before the previous year’s Symposium had finished. ASN Events’ sponsorship team worked closely with the committee representatives to launch the prospectus early and at a face to face meeting with industry representatives. This ensured the team and committee had a unified approach when working with potential sponsors.

Due to the historic success of the Symposium our attendees are largely returning delegates, with word of mouth proving a key component to maintaining registration numbers. This was a concern for 2020 due to HUPO, so we decided on a new approach and implemented social media marketing to great success.

A key focus was to run a sustainable symposium and minimise the carbon footprint as much as possible. To do this we implemented sustainability practices wherever we could, including the introduction of reusable keep cups which were used at most of the cafes in Lorne, continuing with no conference satchels, offering water refill stations and recycling of name badges post event.

The Symposium was held at a difficult time for Australians with the 2020 bushfire season being the worst we have seen. ASN Events worked with the committee and venue to establish a fundraiser for the local Lorne CFA which successfully raised over $5,500. It was incredibly well received from attendees, sponsors, and it has provided a long-lasting legacy for the APS Society. ASN Events successfully ticked the modern, sustainable and community minded goals that were set.

The Outcome

Outcomes of the 25th Lorne Proteomics Symposium exceeded APS’s expectations in several ways:

  • We secured 119% of the Sponsorship target

  • Over 40% of registrants attended from word-of-mouth

  • Third highest number of abstract submissions

  • Second highest number of registrations: 280 delegates attended, an increase of almost 20% from the previous year

  • Three workshops successfully managed pre and during the symposium

  • Gained over 260 twitter followers in 6 months

ASN Events enhanced the delegate and exhibitor experience with the fundraising initiative, it has provided a legacy for APS and a great way for attendees to remember the 25th Lorne Proteomics Symposium which was the key goal.  

Planning for the 26th Lorne Proteomics Symposium has already begun, and we look forward too many more years of a successful partnership.