The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7414 p236
19 August 2006

Society summary

BPC extends its reach through Society website

Initiatives at this year's British Pharmaceutical Conference, which takes place in Manchester from 4 to 6 September, aim to take the conference to a wider pharmacy audience through the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's website. The initiatives include a television production, a daily magazine and webcasting.

Produced by NICE-TV and ITN in association with the Society, BPC TV will feature news, interviews and profiles from the conference. These will be included on a free DVD, to be distributed with The Pharmaceutical Journal later, as well as being made available via the Society’s website.

BPC Today is a daily magazine that will include interviews with some of the key conference players. The magazine will be given free to BPC delegates and will also be published on the Society’s website.

Highlights of two major conference addresses will be made available by webcasting through the website. Both delivered on the opening day of the conference, the addresses are by the Department of Health minister with responsibility for pharmacy, Andy Burnham (Minister of State for Delivery and Quality) and the Society’s President, Hemant Patel.

The Society says that these initiatives are being tried because of the large number of pharmacists unable to attend the conference.

Council member Colin Ranshaw, who chairs the Society’s Conference Committee, hopes that the new initiatives will help the conference to reach out to pharmacists. He says: “BPC is an international showcase event for pharmacy and again this year we have a first class programme. The Conference Committee understands that not all pharmacists can attend BPC and has looked to find new ways to open the conference to a wider audience.

“These new initiatives would not be possible without the backing of our main sponsors Boots, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Lloyds, and I would like to thank them all for their continued support.”

BPC booking and programme information is available from the conference website or from Angela Lyons at conference organiser Health Links (tel 0121 248 3399).