Everyone has had to rethink some priorities since the COVID-19 pandemic began circling the world. We’re working hard to make and renew connections in this critical industry with an eye toward personal safety and good health.

Tom Salemi, Editorial Director, DeviceTalks

Organizing conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic certainly creates new challenges. Most of us can’t travel to our offices, never mind board a plane to a distant destination.

Attending a conference with hundreds of our colleagues and peers isn’t an option. We all have much higher and more important priorities — our families, our health and our communities.

To meet those first two priorities, our company has closed its office in Cleveland and called off our June DeviceTalks meetings in Minneapolis and San Jose. We’ll see you in those cities in 2021. (DeviceTalks Minneapolis will be May 4-5; DeviceTalks West, TBD.)

Now, how do we honor that last priority, community?

First, we’re excited to be moving forward with our DeviceTalks Boston event, still scheduled for Sept. 24-25, 2020. Weeks of abiding by social distancing followed by a careful re-opening of our everyday lives should allow everyone to be part of our flagship meeting at the Hynes Convention Center in the beautiful Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, my hometown.

We’ll roll out the agenda in a month or two. If you have something you’d like to contribute, we’re still accepting input. If you have an idea for a discussion, please email me at tsalemi@wtwhmedia.com.

Second, we’re building out a new platform to connect with our community members right away. As I write in the forthcoming May 2020 print edition of MDO, the COVID-19 pandemic is changing how the medtech industry designs, constructs, sells and uses devices. As part of medtech, DeviceTalks is evolving as well.

I’d like to introduce you to DeviceTalks@Work, a series of podcasts and webinars to bring the news and insights of DeviceTalks, MassDevice and MDO directly to you.

We’ve already published 8 episodes of DeviceTalks Weekly, the news-oriented podcast that I host with the familiar face — and friendly voice — of Chris Newmarker, our Executive Editor of Life Sciences. Every Friday, DeviceTalks Weekly delivers a wrap-up of the week’s top news as well as insights from device makers, Wall Street analysts and specialists in engineering, intellectual property, clinical trials, regulatory and other critical areas.

Soon, we’ll be launching DeviceTalks Keynotes, another podcast series that will bring known and new voices to you. Please look for DeviceTalks podcasts on the podcast player on your phone or computer. Subscribe to the podcasts and every show will come directly to you.

Next, we’ll launch our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Connected Conference, beginning May 19. We’re glad so many of our partners are finding new ways to get their message out via webinars and other virtual events, and we’d like to help them amplify their voices by creating a central gathering place for these virtual meetings.

DeviceTalks Tuesdays will be an online conference where attendees will hear from newsmakers, editors at MassDevice and MDO, and, most importantly, from medtech leaders who are shaping our industry. We’re bringing in speakers from the FDA; Mayo Clinic; Northwestern University; the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, and other industry leaders.

This medtech industry is my community. I’ve been interviewing and writing about medtech entrepreneurs, investors and executives for 22 years. I’ve covered booms, busts and booms again. I’ve watched start-ups get funded, go public and get acquired all on the way toward developing devices that help treat thousands.

I’m proud of how the medtech industry has responded to this global pandemic, and I’m eager to find new ways to help you tell your stories. Please email me if you’d like to be part of any of our DeviceTalks programs. You’ll be glad you did.