Accepting Roundtable Luncheon Discussion Proposals

We hope you are planning to attend the FDA/Industry Statistics Workshop September 23-25th, 2009 at the Capitol Hilton in Washington DC.

To ensure the FDA/Industry Statistics Workshop is lively, productive and useful to all attendees, there will be roundtable luncheon discussions on both days of the workshop that have plenary/concurrent sessions (Thursday and Friday September 24-25th).

In a change from other years, it is envisioned the roundtable luncheons will be intimate discussions led by many volunteers. Thus, we are currently seeking interested volunteers.

The deadline for submission of Roundtable Discussion proposals for the 2009 FDA/Industry Statistics Workshop is April 17th. (Please note for those of you who might be like to be paired with a co-discussant an early response deadline of April 5 is needed for participants who wish to be matched with co-leaders from FDA or Industry).

If you have already submitted a proposal to be a roundtable discussion leader, THANK YOU.

If not, we invite you to participate as a roundtable luncheon discussion leader in 2009. This year we are attempting to pair an industry and a FDA statistician as co-leaders at the same table; however both co-leaders can be from industry, or both from FDA, if that is your preference. This year the participants will receive a box lunch and then join a round table group at the mid-day break during both days of the workshop.

Tables of 6-8 persons will be located in zones with similar discussion topics spread out over 7-12 different rooms. Our hope is to have a wide variety of discussion topics led by many different people.

Are you ready to consider this volunteer opportunity?

The Round Table Discussion Table proposal should utilize the following template when sending an e-mail to the roundtable luncheon discussion core committee (Diane Sweeney and Anna Nevius). In this e-mail please include information about the proposal:

EXAMPLE e-mail, expressing interest in volunteering/proposing a Roundtable Luncheon Discussion.


To: FDAIndustry2009Lunch (at) gmail.com (NOTE: use @ symbol when creating e-mail)
CC: Yourself (always a smart idea!)
Subject: Roundtable Discussion Proposal: Your NAME, Proposed TOPIC/TITLE


Indicate Day or Day(s) preferred.
Thursday ( ) and/or Friday ( )

Roundtable Luncheon Discussion Proposal
Title/Topic:
Discussant Leader Name:
e-mail:
phone:
Professional Affiliation:


As you think about volunteering we have the following suggestions for leading an effective discussion--think about 5 questions (and your responses) to jump start or lead the discussion. You do not need to be a well known leader in the field; the idea is to generate exchange of ideas, discussion and to network. In fact we suggest that you allow at least half of the lunch break for networking.

For those of you hesitant to commit to leading a roundtable luncheon discussion solo, we will also endeavor to connect you with other discussion leaders with similar topics in the same zones in the weeks prior to the workshop or even pair you with person with a similar topic (if you respond by April 5th).

Each session included in the conference has contributed two round table discussion leaders, but many more are needed. Thus of course please feel free to distribute this blogpost to other colleagues who may be interested in taking on this rewarding role as a Roundtable Luncheon Discussant Leader.