Pharmaceutical & BioScience Society, PBSS

Policy on Sponsorship

Refund Policy for Vendors:

Major sponsorship payments are refundable minus a $500 penalty up to 2 months prior to the date of the sponsored event.
Vendor show payments are refundable minus a $100 penalty up to 2 weeks prior to the date of the sponsored event.
After the refund deadline, the sponsorship payment becomes non-refundable. All refund requests must be made online at the Event Registration page after you log into your account.
We hope that you can understand this policy, since we are a volunteer-run organization and have to minimize the effort our volunteers spend on dealing with such issues.

Policy on Membership List Sharing:

In order to protect the privacy of our members, our membership information, such as membership list and meeting attendees list, is strictly used for our internal business only and can not be shared with any party externally.

Policy on Vendor Speakers for "Non-commercial" Presentations:

We often receive requests from vendors for providing a speaker for one of our scientific meetings. Unfortunately, in order to avoid any impression of commercial promotion or vendor favoritism, our policy generally prohibits use of vendor speakers, except in rare cases where a vendor holds a unique technology that we are interested in hearing about. One compromise solution is that the vendor can recommend a client scientist who is an expert on the vendor's technology.

Policies on Vendor Reps attending the vendor show and workshop:

Each vendor show sponsor can send unlimited number of reps for attending the booth (but not for attending the workshop). If the additional reps needs lunch, the lunch can be purchased online in several ways: 1) the rep who is registering for the vendor show can add more reps either at the point of paying for the vendor show or at a later point by re-logging in; 2) the additional rep can log in on his/her own to purchase the lunch.
One rep per vendor can register for the workshop at just the cost of the handout when registering for the vendor show.
If an additional rep / employee wants to attend the workshop, he/she needs to register as a regular attendee (workshop attendance + handout +/- lunch). If this rep does not want to pay for the workshop, he/she may sit in without registration, space permitting. However, that rep will not be able to purchase just a copy of the handout separately online or on-site. He/she can register on-site at the regular online workshop rate (workshop attendance + handout +/- lunch), as opposed to the much higher on-site rate for the regular walk-in attendees.
The Major Sponsor gets 2 free workshop seats + 2 copies of handout + 2 lunches; No separate registration other than the Major Sponsorship payment is required.

Other Sponsorship Info:

How to sponsor?

You can sign up for either the major sponsorship or the vendor show of a seminar luncheon or a workshop by visiting the PBSS home page and clicking on the Register link in the event calendar.

Instructions for Major Sponsorship & Vendor shows

Lunch option for vendor representatives:

The seminar luncheon vendor show:

lunches are provided free of charge. You can sign up for the lunch option when you sign up for the vendor show (at the registration options pop-up window). Your other fellow reps attending the show must sign up for the lunch individually through the seminar luncheon registration process as a regular attendee.

The workshop/forum luncheon vendor show:

lunches are optional for a fee.

Attending the vendor show (seminar luncheon or workshop/forum):

Each vendor (and major sponsor) will get a 6-ft vendor show table. You can display anything approriate on the table, as well as a poster on the wall behind the table using painters tape.
For seminar luncheons and afternoon workshops, arrive by 11:00 AM at the venue to set up your display on a 6-ft table (first come first serve).
For full-day workshops, arrive by 8:00am to set up.
If you have signed up for lunch, you need to check in with the PBSS check-in desk to get your lunch ticket.
You are encouraged to bring a door prize to attract attendees (we limit one prize per vendor). If it is a seminar luncheon vendor show, the raffle drawing takes place at the end of the seminar, roughly ~1:15 PM. If it is a workshop seminar, the drawing takes place normally right before the final workshop session, ~4 PM.
Vendor show time: Seminar luncheon vendor shows: 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM Afternoon Workshop vendor shows: 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM before the workshop; During the workshop breaks (typically ~2:30-2:45, ~3:45-4:00 PM). Morning vendor shows: ~10:30-10:45 PM

If you plan to ship your vendor show display materials to the meeting in advance:

Our SF Bay Area meetings typically take place at Crowne Plaza Foster City. You can ship to Banquet Office, Crowne Plaza, 1221 Chess Drive, Foster City, CA 94404 (Indicate "For your name; PBSS Meeting on Date").

Policies on Sponsorship (Refund policy, Membership list sharing, Vendor speakers)

Refund Policy for Vendors:

Major sponsorship payments are refundable minus a $500 penalty up to 3 months prior to the date of the sponsored event. Vendor show payments are refundable minus a $100 penalty up to 2 weeks prior to the date of the sponsored event. After the refund deadline, the sponsorship payment becomes non-refundable. All refund requests must be made online after you log into your account. We hope that you can understand this, since PBSS is an entirely volunteer-run organization and we have to minimize the effort our volunteers have to spend on dealing with such issues.

PBSS Policy on Membership Information Sharing:

In order to protect the privacy of our members, our membership information, such as membership list and meeting attendees list, is strictly used for PBSS business only and can not be shared with anyone or any party outside the PBSS management.

PBSS Policy on Vendor Speakers:

We often receive interests from vendors in providing a speaker for one of our meetings. Unfortunately, in order to avoid any impression of commercial promotion or vendor favoritism, the PBSS policy generally prohibits use of vendor speakers, except in rare cases where a vendor holds a unique technology that we are interested in hearing about. One compromise solution is that vendors can recommend a client scientist who is an expert on the vendor's technology.