Event: Navigating Promotional Material Through PAAB

The next Montreal American Medical Writer’s Association (AMWA) networking meeting will take place on Wednesday, June 22nd at 7pm. It is entitled “Navigating Promotional Materials Through the PAAB Landscape: A Behind-the-Scenes Look”.

The evening is being organized by Crystal Kaczkowski and the guest speaker will be Lara Holmes, an experienced medical writer/copywriter who has been working in pharma advertising for the past 14 years. During that time, she has had extensive experience with PAAB. The intention of this presentation is to provide some “inside” information on how to avoid the common pitfalls of developing promotional materials for PAAB review.

The topics that will be covered are:

• Product Monograph insight
• Claims support (acceptable references)
• Adapting global/US materials
• Promotional pieces “wish lists”
• Launching a new product
  

Members and non-members are both welcome to this discussion. If you are interested, please RSPV to Crystal at medicalwriter@videotron.ca by Tuesday, June 22 EOD so she know how many chairs to tell the restaurant to set up. (Since traffic can be unpredictable, she has arranged the reservation for 6:45pm, so it is fine to come a bit earlier than 7pm).

Wi Sushi
3697, boul. St-Jean corner Devon
West Island, QC, H9G 1X2 | Dollard-des-Ormeaux
514.696.3399

Medical Writing 101 on June 18th, 2011 in Montreal

I'm really pleased to announce that I will be co-presenting an introduction to medical writing at the Professional Writers' Association of Canada (PWAC) national conference on June 18th, 2011 in Montreal.

Medical Writing 101
Are you curious about medical writing but not sure exactly what it is, what qualifications you need, or what kind of writing work is out there? Join Amanda Strong and Giancarlo La Giorgia as they share their experience writing for the pharmaceutical industry and medical publishers. Learn the basic tools of the trade, how you can build your portfolio, and where to find work.

The professional developmen presentation is mostly an information session about medical writing, the skills and education you need to succeed in it, and how to break into the various sectors of the field. The course fee is $80 ($60 for PWAC members), or free if you register for the full conference ($325 for non-members, $275 for PWAC members).

Here are the other professional development session taking place on the Saturday being presented at the PWAC conference:

• Editors Panel with Susan Nerberg (Deputy Editor, enRoute), Drew Nelles (Editor in Chief, Maisonneuve) and Carmine Starnino (Senior Editor, Reader's Digest)
• Writing for Trade Magazines: Breaking In and Staying In with Suzanne Boles
• Unleash Your Inner Entrepreneur: Panel with Hugh McGuire, Ben Yoskovitz, Jean-Benoit Nadeau & Craig Silverman
• Medical Writing with Amanda Strong and Giancarlo La Giorgia
• Computer-Assisted Reporting in 2011: A Journalist's Guide to Twitter, Facebook, and New Mobile Tools with Elias Makos
• The Pitch of your Life: Writing Book Proposals with Julie Barlow
• On Solid Grounds: Write to Live with Jean-Benoit Nadeau
• Travel & Food Writing with Alexandra Forbes

Complete descriptions, as well as information about other events--such as the Intensive Workshop on Contracts, Negotiation Skills and Small Claims Court--and registration are available on the PWAC site.