Aaron Etra, Director - introducing his association
1. When was your association founded?
ICMAN (2001), ILSC (2013) ICNODAT & GHCA (2016)
2. Where is your association based, how many members do you have & in how many countries?
Based in New York City and New Haven, CT. We collaborate with individuals and institutions on all continents.
3. Who are your members?
The individuals are researchers, academics, medical practitioners, industry product developers, government regulators and policy planners coming from all the disciplines of the life sciences. The institutions and organizations are those where such persons can be found on the international, regional, national and local levels.
4. What is your mission & aim of the association?
To foster and facilitate cross-disciplinary collaborations to focus on the challenges of achieving prevention and delivering therapy leading to better health and wellness
5. What are the major challenges facing your association?
Assembling the necessary elements and recruiting needed resources for particular programs and activities and ensuring ongoing collaborations among attendees; ensuring that innovations and recent developments are the focus and no rehashing or dated approaches or material is presented.
6. What kind of events are organised by your association?
Cross-disciplinary conferences and symposia, bringing together leading researchers, product and therapy developers, regulators and practitioners; research and educational projects; co-sponsored programs.
7. What is the decision process behind the selection of a destination/venue?
- Generating options from among destinations identified before and at MICE shows
- Participating in and following-up on FAM visits
- Collaborating with local interest
- Assembling a local organizing committee
- Finalizing terms of agreement
8. Can you share your insights about the latest trends within the association community?
Always pressure to ensure relevancy and to be up to date on the topics and approaches to deal with public and private health challenges and issues.
9. What does your association do in terms of legacy, do your meetings have a societal impact on the destination?
Our essence is cross-disciplinary collaborations, developed at and continuing after our programs and projects, facilitating persons and institutions from the destinations having continuing contacts with their peers worldwide and meeting and working with those they may never have otherwise met.
10. Are you looking to forge collaborations with other associations? If so in what areas of expertise?
Collaborations with other associations are front and center in our thoughts, beginning with the establishment of the local organizing committee and continuing after the program and/or project. This applies to both of our life sciences series (ICMAN & ICNODAT) and to the institution/organization-to-institution/organization purpose of the GHCA.
For more information on ICMAN please check their website: www.ilscollaboration.org