Daniela Simion-Danicescu

Events are considered to be the most personalised form of marketing, as they generate direct contact with customers and partners. Academic events aim at promoting socio-economic values by facilitating collaborative partnerships with the involvement of academics, researchers, graduates, students and representatives of the economic environment. They also aim to set up participatory networks between socio-economic actors, academic centers and research institutes, as well as between different communities at national and international level in different fields of activity. The experience offered to the participants creates a close relationship with the academic brand, which gains a human face, which positively influences the way it is perceived by the public. Through academic events, it is favored to combine ideas, generate new concepts and phenomena that are useful to society’s progress. Moreover, by debating and analysing current trends on how both the economy and the university are affected, new theoretical and practical opportunities can be identified. The main purpose of experiential marketing in academic events is to create memorable and long-lasting ties between the participants and the academic environment, as well as to generate real opportunities for socialisation and interpersonal interactions. The article will treat the results of a qualitative exploratory marketing research. It aims at clarifying and understanding the paradigm of the scientific event as a factor of university visibility. In this sense, we aimed to identify the relationship of interdependence between the scientific event and the brand of an university.

Medicine and the pharmaceutical industry have a long and rich history of events. The transition from magic to modern medication was gradually achieved over thousands of years of evolution. Ambroise Pare, a French anatomist and surgeon from the 16th century, stated that it was very simple: “The doctor cares, God heals.” The medical-industrial complex appears to grow much faster than the economic power. And this is because the system is oriented not only by the demand, but also by doctors who play a double role. They offer medical services and, at the same time, they control their need (demand). Along with human and technological evolution, in some countries of the world, medicine can be inaccessible, perhaps untouchable or it is even considered to be a luxury. In this case, luxury is presented in the form of rationality that draws the medical world at various congresses, where the only words that can characterize the event are: the performance, high-class, luxury and international reputation of the doctors or of the speakers. This article briefly outlines the results of a qualitative marketing research among medical congress organizers-social events where high-quality marketing blends nicely with the quality of modern medicine news and perspectives, thus forming a clearer picture of the tradition and the priorities of topics chosen for medical events. The result of the research is reflected in the sketch of a program of such an event in Romania, combining the high scientific performance with social elements that can significantly increase the attractiveness of such a manifestation. In order to obtain a conclusive feedback, a useful tool is also developed and accessible to the organizers. The bibliography supports theoretically the concepts with which it operates (event marketing, the significance of high-class professional performance and the specific coordinates of the medical sector).