ARCS 2024: Tim Boyle, ARCS Australia

yes I'm Tim Bo and I'm the Chief Executive Officer of AR Australia obviously we're at the ARs Australia conference here yes uh with about, 1600 other people MH uh and it's our biggest and best conference we've had yet today yeah it's been it's been a great Vibe and we're we're kind of in the back half of day two and I've I got a bit of a sense that there's a little bit of a theme happening from each day in some of the sessions but we've been busy here on the Expo floor at the popup recording studio here but um tell me I've seen you out and about and been managed to grab you for a couple of minutes here to have a chat Tim so what's been the vibe out and about and and what's been happening in the sessions and uh what's your take Stu up yeah so this year the conference is a little bit different so traditionally our conferences have been broken down into streams it's really three or four Symposium and pushed together uh and we run seven parallel streams across 3 days uh but this year it's a it's a turning point for us we're moving from being a member Association that's focused on professional development for the medch and pharmaceutical sector to being being really a professional association for everyone that works in the med tech and K sh yeah sector so it's it is departure from an deliberate part of growing to fill the value that our members ask us uh with that come as a greater responsibility a brought value for some of our member areas that we probably haven't brought a lot of value for in the past yeah and did I hear right that it's 40 years for us yeah so 40 years ago the association was born as the association for Regulatory and clinical scientists for the Australian pharmaceutical industry okay which is quite a big acronym yeah and it really was at that time the precursor to medic Australia was all adoped and they wouldn't let technical staff um join okay so it was a protest Association to start with uh and basically over time I was engaged because the conversation became bigger than just um Regulatory Affairs and clinical science uh and now ship has grown to be repeative of the whole sector and every occupational sectoral role that Ean had and so we at 20 years ago AR Australia or the long Acron I mentioned before rebranded to AR Australia to represent but uh now it's we're we're relaunching as the um as arral still but with a focus on the medch and pharmaceu book profession yeah interesting and so I I've noticed look there's looking around the the room here but also just in some of the conversations I've had with speakers and just participants and the regulatory theme uh comes through pretty strong the AI is coming through pretty strong what are some of those hot topics and things that you're hearing out in NS yeah I think the the big thing is the uh convergence of Technologies uh you so we' got lot medical Technologies pervade with sector that you see them in our hospitals and so it's traditional Technologies like beds in hospitals are evolving total trials information systems that Clin and Cal researchers of interface with regulatory systems that capture information and dossers but now we're seeing exponential Technologies like AI perve into them it creates you know different ethical considerations how are they trained how the biases in those in those Solutions managed yeah and it's it's creating more questions and answers in some respect and as you was seen on the play panel this morning and I made the statement that these tools make productive people more productive and lazy people la right yeah and you really just put ethical lens over the way you adopt these is it to cut a corner in Saving Time which is it the right thing or is it to amplify your productivity to getet game on top of it again I like that way I like that a lot and um I noticed too on the thing because we've got a big day tomorrow morning recording a lot of conversations with the participants in biob beu is it tell me a little bit more about what that's about yeah so the conference always always had a startup dream um help should be on the last day and it hasn't been well attended in the past because it was sort of mish mash of exhibitors and um startups that were sort of side projects of of other people within the the ecosystem yeah of our members but some of the feedback I've been getting from our members is really how we embrace our early phase Technologies because every early phase technology has to go through the therapeutic development pipeline or path paway The Innovation Pathway to to From the Bench to bedside and the capabilities and the the Milestones requires to get there are the services that all the exhibitors this all provide and our members provide and they the value inflection points for for the um the commercialization of these products yeah so um you a lot of focus goes into incubators and um special government funds for uh staff support or entrepreneurship programs or vure capital and they're great it help they water washes the washes the Technologies down the the River or the technology rless level River but the value inflection points are created by our members regulatory strategy drives um pricing inflection points through indd or um you know a new product dossier for for approval their value inflection points once they have been granted and received sure our F CL positive result in clinical trials the value Reflection Point so our members are directly involved in creating value for these startups and they want to know who they are earlier so they can engage and help them on their Journey because the more Technologies and more stuffs are going through the local Sy ecosystem the more business there is for our members and they all boat rise of that top yeah yeah yeah so we we changed it slightly and we put a call out to non-members to to the public to try and find nine of the best startups that we can think that in the sector they range from ealth Sol Solutions support support businesses that do GMP manufacturing there some biotechs there some device companies so we got a really good hex a really good mix of male and female foundings M and we're going to we're going to Showcase it we're going to showing the bi Beacon the light we're putting onto these startups and going make a big deal of them across the year and promote them so that everyone in the sector knows who they are what they are what they're doing and we give them every opportunity to succeed yeah amazing and we'll feature a couple of those on the on podcast episode and all through our YouTube channel too and that conversations have tomorrow looking forward to that you know I was thinking over the last couple of days too and you know we we engage with industry bodies in the in the Medtech space and the biotech and the software side and the health informatics and the startups have their own little circles too and that you know and it makes sense in in in your description just then and like that example of Bio Beacon and how you know that it all all all the the rising tide um you know brings all the boats so it's it's you know for for clarity for those that are looking at arcs and maybe seeing it from the outside understanding well you know is this something that that we uh engage with members or we become a member like how do you kind of describe where this fits into that broader kind of Health ecosystem yeah well firstly I think a lot of the initiatives aimed at showcasing startups are competitions yeah and there there's no competitions here in entrepreneurship we want everyone to win yeah we don't want companies failing we don't want others doing better we want everyone to be reaching their full potential that's a big part of it but in terms of the holistic ecosystem of our our membership with what we where we work yeah there there's a role for everyone that's working in the metch and pharmaceutical sector to be an AR man love it's really aligning the professional Journey uh and the training required professional development activities the net worth of support that were they will build to excel professional in their career that's what AR ARS brings so you could be a clinical researcher we work in Regulatory Affairs we a medical information riter work in Market access you could a business the licensing or be entrepreneur there's something for you to learn by being 's member uh we recognize our members through post nominals those that could demonstrate competency against their compeny framework she lost this warning River charted membership status so we're we're really driving elevation of um professionals with the sector Engineers have it easy Engineers Australia um they different sectoral colleges based on if you're a chemical engineer or a biomedical engineer uh same yeah chem Australian chemical Institute and then there another professional association have professional development Pathways professional recognition and Ark is taking the role of the professional association for The Med and farm yeah got it that makes a lot of sense hey lastly Tim thinking about uh you know with we're been about halfway through the the conference already what are you hoping that people will take away from this session and maybe what can we look forward to seeing it uh future um arcs events for for members and and maybe this time that she yeah the key takeaway is that we can't do it all on our own we need to work as a team and we need to work collectively competition between um between our members and the organization they work through is is an important part of of Excellence but also need to embrace collaborative competition if that's if that's a thing or Co competition so that we all we don't we don't shut down you we don't drown people in our in our you know gas for competition to gas for air that's what a healthy ecosystem looks like and healthy membership organization that's one the key take comes there's so much upside to be gained by working professionalizing our sector yes and that that's what we're working to achieve that's the big take home I've antip that we're going to grow exponentially each year this year is about 10% bigger than last year's conference tonight I think we'll see that Trend it might be 15% actually 10% on where we are yeah and that Trend should grow especially with the changes are making towards being a professional association yeah [Music]