What Happens When A Farmer Attends a Food Science Convention?

The story could start with a farmer and a food scientist walk into a bar…or a restaurant…or a grocery store…or the Food Expo at IFT18: A Matter of Science and Food. Although they stand at opposite ends of the food chain, their topic of conversation is food - sustainability, security, waste and innovation.

GMO Answers volunteer expert and farmer Katie Pratt joined GMO Answers at their booth during the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Convention in Chicago in July. Katie and her husband, Andy, are seventh generation farmers raising farm kids, corn, soybeans, and seed corn with Andy's family in north central Illinois.

She talked to many food scientists, nutritionists, technologists, and marketing professionals. During the show, Katie did a Facebook Live video for GMO Answers, with some initial thoughts about her conversations and engagements.

After the show, and with some time to look back and reflect on her experience, she wrote a blog post for the GMO Answers Medium page. Her main theme: Farmers, scientists and researchers have a message for you: GMOs are safe! But this message is getting muddled due to a lack in science literacy.

Her three main takeaways:

• Food scientists support science. The majority of the people who stopped at the GMO Answers booth did so to say, "Thanks for being here. We need people talking about GMOs, about science."
• Crafting a scientific message that can be - should be - heard by their marketing counterparts is a great source of frustration for food scientists.
• The discussion of sustainability, food insecurity and food waste are everywhere! From small-town USA to the developing world, our planet is hungry and our ability to understand science affects our ability to innovate, to discover solutions to very timely problems.

Ultimately, science literacy must make a comeback in our schools, in our universities, in our daily conversations. Because when we understand the world around us, be it a field, a pasture, a laboratory or a bar, our ability to do better grows.

For more about GMOs, please visit the GMO Answers website.

 

 

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How Building an Offline Community Can Help Your Online Marketing

UCLA scientists found that sixth graders who went five days without using a smartphone or digital screen were better at reading human emotions than those who stayed online. As evident by UCLA's study, offline communication is critical for maintaining relationships.

In business, nearly 100% of people say face-to-face meetings are essential for long-term relationships. However, most business interactions exist primarily online.

Online communities can create meaningful connections that lead to long-term relationships -- but if you only have conversations online, you risk losing that personal touch.

If you want to have more personal interactions with your customers, it might be time to add a human touch to your marketing by turning email flows and comment chains into offline communities.

At Typeform, we host Meetups with industry experts to connect people with similar interests, and to elaborate on topics relevant to our product. If you want to host events for your own customers, you have a ton of options.

To create a more well-rounded marketing strategy, let's dive into the benefits of offline marketing communities and consider how they can sync up with your online methods.

1. Align your offline community with your company's mission.

Every successful business has a purpose and something unique to offer. So if you want to create a successful offline community, figure out how you can create an event centered around something that nobody else offers.

If you're not sure where to start, ask your customers. Consider sending out a survey, or reach out to them on social media. Ask them: What do they come to you for? What do they like about you? Why do they choose you over your competitors?

Of course, your product or service won't appeal to everyone. But to foster a successful offline community, you'll need to bring people together who truly believe in your business and what it stands for.

For instance, Product Hunt recognized that giving its early adopters special status and connecting them with each other was a powerful way to drive growth.

The company began hosting happy hours and offline events to bring together their product users in real life and build a sense of community. By listening to this group of dedicated customers and delivering value, Product Hunt went from 40,000 to 400,000 users in the span of four months.

 

2. Determine a goal for your event.

What do you want to achieve with your offline community? Whatever your goal, it should tie into your brand and your online marketing objectives. It should also be tailored to your business' target audience.

If you're hosting events, make sure the events have a clear purpose that's obvious to attendees.

Clearly outline what your attendees can expect to get from the event -- will you provide networking opportunities, insight from industry experts, or is the event just for fun. Rather than considering what's in it for you, take the time to contemplate what's in it for them.

Whatever incentive you provide, map out how it will bring people closer to your company, and how it'll encourage them share your company values with friends and coworkers.

Hootsuite's member-organized workshops are a fantastic example of this. They have a clear educational purpose that offers people a reason to engage with their brand. The events are free, and they bring together people who are passionate about social media.

People can network and get industry insights -- all while learning more about the Hootsuite app.

3. Decide on a location.

Offline communities can reinforce loyalty in places where you're already popular, or boost brand awareness in more uncharted territory.

Wherever you choose to host your event, make sure you understand the local community.

Take inspiration from local businesses to see which issues they're promoting. Once people know you care about the same things, you'll be able to create a grassroots community that is loyal to your brand.

For instance, the Orlando City Soccer Club organized a scavenger hunt on social media by hiding three pairs of tickets across their home city. Then, they linked the real life search to their online communities using Periscope, Twitter, and Instagram to offer clues on how fans could find the tickets.

4. Encourage your customers to organize events.

If your business is running on a tight budget, you might not have the resources to organize an event. So why not encourage your loyal customers to run their own?

If your product or service is good enough, people will want to share the experience, and your following will grow organically -- both online and offline.

There's no marketing tool more powerful than your own customers.

Take kitchen appliance Instant Pot, for instance. Their product is worshipped by online communities, with fans setting up their own Facebook Groups. This has inspired offline communities who meet to swap recipes, and even Instant Pot cooking classes for students.

5. Avoid a hard sell approach.

You'll want to think of offline communities as another channel that targets the top of the marketing funnel. Instead of centering these communities around selling your product, make it about giving back to the community or offering a unique service -- even better if it's free.

Creating a face-to-face, human connection is key to getting people invested in your brand. If you offer a positive human interaction that really connects with people offline, then they're much more likely to want to engage with you online.

Grain Surfboards hosts events that teach people how to shape their own surfboards. The workshops don't focus on selling, but instead on creating a community of like-minded people who are interested in making their own surfboards.

These events drive sales during the classes themselves, and also serve as a powerful brand awareness tool. After a surf student leaves a class, Grain will be top of mind next time they run out of board wax.

6. Make your offline and online communities talk to each other.

Bringing online and offline communities together works in two ways.

First, you can reward your loyal online community members and customers with exclusive access to your offline events, such as:

• Early registration
• Discounts on ticket prices
• Special members-only events

Additionally, you can provide your offline event attendees with special access to online communities, events, or perks. This will help you build a holistic community.

By forming a deeper relationship with your customers in this way, they're more likely to respond positively if you ask them to leave a review, share your content, or take a survey.

7. Moving forward: building a community that scales.

A community is a powerful thing. When people feel like you care about them, they care more about your business.

But any community must be able to scale to succeed. Once you've put in the hard work to build strong relationships offline, you need to make those people advocates of your brand. You need to empower them to spread the word through their own communities to get your name out there.

HubSpot does this with their global HubSpot User Groups, HUGs. HubSpot users can apply to become HubSpot Agency partners, who lead local user groups. Each meeting is by users and for users, and covers themes related to marketing, sales, or services, with industry experts.

This provides an emotional connection that endures both online and offline.

Connecting like-minded people with groups like these is the foundation of healthy offline communities.

An offline community represents a loyal following of people who are emotionally invested in your product. While an online connection to your company needs a good WiFi signal, emotional connections endure far beyond the limits of a laptop screen. 

National Immunization Awareness Month is Timely Reminder of Modern Marvel of Vaccines

August marks National Immunization Awareness Month – a time to take inventory on where we stand, and recognize how far we've come, in advancing breakthrough vaccines designed to protect the world's population. However, despite the clear societal and economic benefits that come with common vaccinations like a flu shot, distorted facts and misinformation about immunization often stand between these extraordinary products and the populations that urgently need them. Regardless of a greater portion of society agreeing that the benefits outweigh the risks, year-round efforts to ensure individuals across the globe are educated with the facts on vaccine safety and effectiveness are more important than ever.

And the facts are now beyond doubt. One estimate found that between 2011 and 2020, vaccines will have averted over 23 million deaths in low-income countries. What's more, according to the CDC, vaccines are responsible for saving the lives of more than 730,000 American children between 1994-2013. During this same period, more than 320 million childhood illnesses were prevented in the U.S. alone.

But it's not just children who benefit from vaccines. Men and women of all ages should make sure they are up to date – especially as individuals age and their immune systems weaken. In the U.S., the Alliance for Aging Research found that between 50,000 and 90,000 adults die annually from vaccine-preventable diseases or their complications. Each one of those deaths is a terrible tragedy that could easily be avoided with more widespread vaccination.

Beyond the impact on our lives and health, vaccines also have a tremendous positive economic impact. American businesses lose billions of dollars in lost productivity each year because of employees falling ill from sicknesses that vaccines could have helped prevent. In fact, one estimate predicted that 11 million workers would become sick with the flu during the 2018 winter season, costing their employers over $9 billion in sick leave. Another study found that the vaccination of children born in the United States in 2009 is projected to generate $184 billion in lifetime social value – that's about $45,000 per child.

The data speaks for itself: from both an economic and public health standpoint, vaccines have the ability to shape and change the world. Take polio for example. An outbreak in 1952 took the lives of 3,000 Americans, paralyzing another 21,000 in that same year. Families were broken, communities were devastated, and our country lived in fear. What seemed like an unbeatable challenge, however, was no match for science. Years of R&D and sleepless nights led many brilliant scientists to a vaccine for the virus by 1955. In 1979, polio, once our nation's most feared disease, was officially eliminated in the United States.

Shingles is another condition that we now have the tools to conquer. This painful rash, often described as debilitating and intense, can last for weeks, and feel like an eternity for many patients. But the past few years have brought welcome news. The CDC now recommends two vaccines for adults age 50 years or older, and these modern marvels are highly effective at reducing the severity of shingles pain which is an incredible step forward in the fight against this debilitating illness.

It's also encouraging to see researchers and scientists' race against time to prevent emerging viral diseases like Zika, Ebola, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) from spreading and thus causing an unpredictable outbreak. As Dr. Michael Ryan of the World Health Organization recently explained, new tools and resources are being used to control Ebola as we speak. After spending time on the ground with vaccination teams and families in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Ryan added, "for the first time in my experience, I saw hope in the face of Ebola and not terror."

Today, more than 260 vaccines are in development to both prevent and treat diseases. The pipeline includes a vaccine to prevent HIV and a therapy focused on combating Alzheimer's, among others. The science is incredible, but as a society we must do our part. Talk to your loved ones – family, friends, colleagues, or peers – and spread the word about the benefits of getting vaccinated. For ourselves and for our children and grandchildren, we can't afford to do otherwise.

Phyllis Arthur is the Vice President for Infectious Diseases and Diagnostics Policy at BIO, responsible for working with member companies in vaccines, molecular diagnostics and bio-defense on policy, legislative and regulatory issues.

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Vaccine Video Series Aims to Educate on the Benefits of Immunization

National Immunization Awareness Month might be coming to a close, but it's important to continue helping people understand why vaccines are so important throughout the entire year.

To bolster these efforts, the National Vaccine Program Office teamed up with the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion to create a series of short videos highlighting the importance of vaccines. Each segment focuses on a specific condition like whooping cough, shingles, or pneumococcal disease, and helps the general public understand why they should get vaccinated – and just how important vaccines are to society.

As BIO has pointed out before, vaccines have tremendous societal value, responsible for saving more than 730,000 children over the past 20 years in the U.S. One study found that the vaccination of children born in the United States in 2009 is projected to generate $184 billion in lifetime social value – or about $45,000 per child.

The truth is, vaccines have been used with great success over the years against viruses and bacteria that cause everything from polio to some forms of cancer. Beyond National Immunization Awareness Month, help spread the word about these prevention miracles and the many benefits that come along with them.

Report: Patients More Likely to Skip Therapy as Out-of-Pocket Costs Rise

IQVIA - a nonpartisan health care research firm - is out with troubling new data showing a direct correlation between high out-of-pocket costs and patients forgoing the medicines they need. In 2017, 69% of patients covered in the commercial market did not fill a new prescription when their insurance company required them to pay out of pocket costs exceeding $250.

In recent years, patients have been subjected to spending more on deductibles and coinsurance. To offset this financial burden not covered by their insurers, many pharmaceutical companies have begun to offer various forms of patient assistance, and according to IQVIA, this assistance is making a difference for patients.

Yet in recent months, health plans have implemented "co-pay accumulator" programs – an effort to prevent funds provided by these assistance programs from applying to a patient's out of pocket maximum or deductible. As a result, patients are left with steep costs and are less likely to fill the prescriptions they need.

It's time for the insurance industry to step up and do its part to help ensure patients have access to the medicines they need at costs they can affordable.

See the full IQVIA report here.

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EPA Lag in Cellulosic Ethanol Approvals Hurting Rural America

In comments filed to the EPA August 17 on the 2019 proposed volumes for the renewable fuel standard, BIO urged the agency to "seize the opportunity afforded by the RFS program to promote the type of innovation that will help grow advanced and cellulosic biofuels, create good paying jobs, and help revitalize rural America by strengthening our world-leading biobased economy."

Specifically, BIO comments are with regards to the low number of approvals the EPA has issued for advanced and cellulosic ethanol.

As Marc Heller reports for E&E News, "EPA is sharply underestimating the amount of cellulosic ethanol that U.S. companies could produce - and its own administrative lag is partly to blame, industry sources say."

Because yearly cellulosic ethanol volumes mandated under the RFS are determined by the number of cellulosic facilities already registered, and the number of facilities officials believe will come on line during the year, the lack of approvals by EPA significantly hinders the growth of the cellulosic ethanol industry.

As a result, biotechnology companies like Edeniq have several applications pending. Brian Thome, president and CEO of Edeniq, noted to Heller that this means cellulosic ethanol production is not reaching its full potential.

With approvals in place, the industry could provide as much as 50 million gallons more than that, Edeniq said in comments submitted to the agency. Thome told E&E News that as much as 100 million gallons of the biofuel could be at stake.

Thome later goes on to add, "This is real volume and growth that appear to be sitting still now."

In its comments, BIO noted that EPA's lag in approving cellulosic ethanol applications is particularly hurting rural America. In sections of the country where farmers grow the corn that is turned into cellulosic ethanol and where biorefineries are headquartered, countless good paying jobs are at stake. In a time when farmers and businesses in rural America are grappling with low crop prices and trade uncertainty, the EPA should work diligently on its backlog of applications to help grow cellulosic ethanol production, thus helping corn growers and biorefinery's across America's heartland.

After all, as Brian Thome notes to Heller, "the pipeline [for approving cellulosic ethanol applications] wasn't always so slow."

To read BIO's comments on the 2019 proposed RFS volumes click here. To read BIO's press release on its comments, click here.

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#MakeHistory: Highlighting History I China

Venture capital investment in US biotech companies has skyrocketed as Chinese investors continue to fuel the US pharmaceutical startup sector. With over $1.4 billion invested by Chinese VC funds into private US biotechnology firms in Q1 2018 alone, the Chinese investment community represents a materially significant and growing source of growth capital for the industry.

While recent trade rifts between the US and China have threatened industries including US coal producers, farmers and crude oil industries, the biotechnology hubs of Cambridge and Silicon Valley continue to see Chinese investment coming in. Over this past summer, we've seen a flurry of retaliatory tariffs enacted by policymakers in both countries that have made many industries concerned of the future strength of their market. However, the biotechnology sector remained relatively unscathed with Q4 2017 and Q1 2018 reports reflecting a growth of almost $1.5 billion, per Pitchbook.

Just over a decade ago, the Chinese pharmaceutical market had been solely dominated by the generics industry. The significant resources required to support innovative drug development forced most domestic pharmaceutical companies to prioritize short-term revenue through developing generic drugs. While the strength of the generics industry in China still remains significant, policies that put innovation at the forefront have placed the Chinese pharmaceutical sector at a turning point. Today we are seeing a transformation in a market that once focused on solely manufacturing products to one that funds innovative cures through fostering a strong domestic sector and foreign investment.

Recent government initiatives have even further invigorated the industry making the biotech field eligible for expanded government R&D subsidies, additional funds for science parks, and incentives to innovate personalized treatment and drugs that treat critical disease. Specifically, these initiatives could provide preferential tax policies that would aid small to micro-sized enterprises that are focused on these development areas.

Further, announcements made earlier this year that the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) will allow pre-revenue biotech companies to list onto its stock exchange has potential to further expand the Chinese market and serve a great opportunity for Chinese investors. Allowing for this second listing may provide legitimacy and help companies attract additional investment.

Despite the recent increase in political and financial support strengthening the Chinese biotech sector, the threat of deepening trade disputes has created a relatively unpredictable political climate.

Recently, on August 13, 2018, President Trump signed into effect the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA), which provides more vigilant scrutiny of foreign acquisitions and investments in the US. These FIRRMA reforms expand the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that President Trump states, "closes the gap" between what transactions CFIUS can review and what they previously could not. While FIRRMA does not mention China specifically in the legislation, over the next few months it will be important to consider the country's role in this narrative as Chinese investment continues to expand in the US biotech market.

But as for now, it is too close to tell what CFIUS may mean specifically for biotech deals between Chinese investors and US companies. While the logistics of the law will be flushed out in the coming months, it will be important for companies and investors alike to be aware of the potential implications these reforms may have on Chinese acquisitions of US companies and rates of investment.

To stay abreast of these important issues in the global biotech investment community, we invite you to attend the 17^th annual BIO Investor Forum in San Francisco on October 17-18, 2018. Learn more about China's investor boom, the HK stock exchange, and the implications new CFIUS legislation may have on your investment deals during the two full days of education sessions.

Below are a few featured sessions from the 2018 BIO Investor Forum program:

Reaching Chinese Investors: Considerations for an IPO in Hong Kong

Wednesday, October 17, 2:00-2:55 pm

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is capturing worldwide attention as it modifies listing rules to permit biotech companies, opening the door for Chinese firms seeking public market financing as well international firms eyeing the support of investors in China. In just the exchange's first few weeks more than USD 1 billion in new offerings have generated funding that will be applied to accelerate clinical research on behalf of patients.  This session will examine cross-border perspectives on the appetite of China-based investors for biotechs and the criteria to determine the attractiveness of listing on the exchange for foreign entities as Hong Kong sets its sights at becoming a major biotech funding source.

Policy Outlook- Implications of the Trump Administration's Healthcare Initiatives

Wednesday, October 17, 3:15-4:10 pm

Across 2018 the U.S. federal government has launched multiple new initiatives regarding how new medicines will be authorized, commercialized, and reimbursed, including in such areas as genome editing, continuous manufacturing, and Medicare rebates.  This panel of people close to the policy making process will share the latest data on FDA expectations, plus discuss the Trump Administration's stances on healthcare spending, the opioid addiction crisis, trade tariffs, and tax policies that will affect biopharmas both immediately and in the years ahead.

Explore additional educational programming and investor partnering opportunities here. We welcome you to join us this year at the BIO Investor Forum.