With over 700 MassBio Member companies, it can be a challenge to individually reach all of the employees of our member companies, especially if the members are outside of the Cambridge area. In response to the increasing number of member companies outside of Cambridge, we created our popular Regional Mixer Series. This series has brought together our members in growing biotech hubs such as Woburn, Danvers, Worcester and beyond.
To complement the series, this year we launched “MassBio’s Trick or Treating Road Show.” Along with my fellow team members, Laura Hamilton and Lea Sansone, we took to the road and delivered over 70 Trick-or-Treat Goody Bags to our members near and far. Not only did the bags include delicious goodies, they also included information about membership. Our goal was to not only thank our members for their support, but also to educate them on our programs and upcoming events.
Throughout our journeys, we were able to meet new contacts, get valuable feedback and even update our records. We learned members had moved, member reps had changed and we also learned that some people had no idea they were members!
Laura Hamilton, our Manager of Member Recruitment, headed up to 
the Burlington/Bedford area, stopping at places like Anika Tx, Cisbio and Ocular Tx. While Lea Sansone, Manager of Member Benefits, made deliveries around Waltham and Newton area, she stopped at places like Radius, FORUM Pharmaceuticals, and Juno Therapeutics. I toured Metro-West and the South Shore. This exercise was a great way to introduce myself to long-time members that I had never met in person, such as Jennifer Allahyarian from Imugen and Rick Hennessey at Commonwealth Sciences, both in Norwood. I also discovered that members Allena Pharma and Alcresta Pharma had expanded into a new Natick lab facility and that Immunogen has a location in Norwood, as well as Waltham.
Lea and I completed the tour on October 29th at MBI at Gateway Park in Worcester with MassBio-friends, Jon Weaver and Kevin O’Sullivan. We were able to meet many of the up-and-coming incubator companies, while spreading the word about our Worcester Regional Mixer that night.
