Company Members update: report from a commercial perspective

The IBMS Company Members Liaison Group (CMLG) was formed in 1992 following the Liverpool Triennial, together with a Company Members scheme and a Company Members committee (CMC). The CMC was first chaired by Ian Pinn, who was with Beckman at the time. Ian liaised closely with the IBMS, a committee was formed and through sharing ideas the concept of a biennial meeting was born. The chosen venue was the Birmingham International Conference Centre, which has now been home every two years since 1995 for the Biomedical Science Congress.

Chairs followed with Norman Burrows (Bayer, now Siemens), John Bagshaw (bioMerieux), Jag Grewal (Beckman/Omega) and myself (Pro-Lab Diagnostics). Over all these years, committee members have come and gone, dedicating valuable time to work closely with the IBMS, and it is appropriate once again for me to offer my thanks and those of all previous chairs, company members and the IBMS.

September 2013 saw over 2000 delegates and 150 commercial companies converge on Birmingham for Congress. However, the 2015 event will soon be upon us, and preparations already are under way. The work of the team from the Midlands branch has become legendary, and the dedication of Bob, Sue and Ben Kyte (Step) and their staff ensures smooth running for us all. Previous years have seen various learning experiences and these have improved set up, break down, happy hour. With such a well groomed system, we are now faced with two key questions. Can we improve anything for 2015? Where do we go from here with respect to the relationship between Company Members and the IBMS?