Upcoming CCS Workshop — A New Direction in Workshop Design

When you think of a workshop what do you think of? It is an important question and one that PDA has been focusing on for some time. What should the design be? How do you ensure attendees remain engaged and have the chance to interact and learn from the instructors and from one another?

These were some of the questions we asked ourselves last year when the Contamination Control Strategy Workshop Planning Committee started to build a workshop around the soon-to-be-released PDA Technical Report No. 90: Contamination Control Strategy Development in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing. We encouraged the committee to think outside the box and ensure the attendees would get truly immersed. I congratulate the committee on a job well done. When I first glimpsed the final workshop outline, I knew immediately this would be the type of “different” we had hoped for.

Three items in the new design struck me immediately:

1. All participants will receive a copy of TR-90 at no additional cost prior to the workshop to prepare for in-depth discussion and activities. I really like this approach of giving attendees materials ahead of time to prepare them and make the workshop as impactful as it can be.
2. The one-and-a-half-day workshop is packed with over eight hours of hands-on small group activities, discussions and Q&A sessions. When considering this topic specifically, this level of interaction and discussion truly increases the value of the workshop for attendees.
3. More than a dozen industry experts will be facilitating the workshop to ensure attendees leave with the tools and experiences needed to build and evaluate their contamination control strategies. This design gives attendees a lot of time to interact with the experts, which provides substantial benefits as they can discuss real-world situations and challenges.

We have never before had this level of interaction designed into a workshop. So, I am very excited for the attendees who will experience this new format and very thankful to the industry experts who will share their thoughts and experiences. With the Annex 1 implementation date quickly approaching, I cannot think of a better way to support the industry on this extremely important topic.