THAY Medical at Farmaforum 2021
Last week THAY Medical attended the 7th edition of the Farmaforum exhibition in Madrid, Spain. This was an event we have been planning for and looking forward to for a long time as, unfortunately, the event planned for 2020 got cancelled due to the pandemic.
Something that became apparent throughout this event was the fact that when engaging in a conversation about, or starting to explain what we do, people looked at us in confusion. They did not know what Human Factors Engineering is, but instantly got intrigued as we started explaining it. There was a large contrast between attending this exhibition in comparison to Med-tech Innovation UK back in September. Many people knew not only who we are, but what Human Factors Engineering was. They were concerned about how users would interact with their devices and were actively asking questions about our expertise and global capabilities. At Farmaforum in Spain on the other hand, we found that this subject was something completely new for a lot of attendees and we were explaining a lot more fundamentally what we do, and how this in fact was relevant to what they were doing themselves. The introduction of the new medical device regulations drove this interest.
When we set our goals for this exhibition, we used the SMART method. We had two Specific main goals, to create new contacts as well as spreading the word and importance of Human Factors in a country where, despite of its importance, it is yet to boom.
To Measure our success, we traced the engagement on our website and social media pages as well as new email enquiries and new contacts.
The people Assigned with the tasks necessary to reach our goals, in this case to attend the exhibition, were our Managing Director – Greg, our Director of Projects and Quality – Alicia, and our Sales and Marketing Coordinator - Frida.
Although you should always dream big, it is important that your goals are Realistic, hence our goal to spread awareness of the importance of Human Factors Engineering whilst developing a medical device. We know that there is not a lot of knowledge within this subject in Spain, which our long-term goal is to change. One of our fundamental beliefs as a company is that good Human Factors save lives every day.
When using the SMART method, you should specify a Timeframe for reaching your goals, and last week’s exhibition was only the start of our mission. Our goal is to have widely spread the word of Human Factors by this time next year for manufacturers to realise how vital this step is in the manufacturing process and thereby create a larger market for this field in Spain and Europe.
To summarise and evaluate the event; we believe that although we did not encounter as many people with pre-existing knowledge within the subject of Human Factors during this event as we may have done at an event of the same size in the UK, our presence at this event is a great start on the road to reach our goals to increase awareness and widen this market in Spain by next year. It was a greatly enjoyable event that we believe was beneficial for both ourselves as well as the attendees, and we are already looking forward to the 8th edition of Farmaforum 2022.
