From the President's Desk

Dear Members,

As we continue through uncharted waters, there appears to be a brightening light at the end of the tunnel. As the joke goes, let’s hope it’s not a train. However, I feel the science has proven true and we are moving toward a safer environment from the risks of COVID. I am also very optimistic considering our industry proved its capability to successfully operate in a virtual business environment, while producing lifesaving vaccines in record-breaking time. While performing in this virtual environment, we have decreased our carbon footprint and our need for brick and mortar business locations. This is a trend that can bolster the bottom line while improving employee work/life balance. My wish for our industry, because there should always be a silver lining, is for these improvements to continue.

While the challenges of COVID are trending in a positive direction, we begin to deal with the wake left behind. While it is still too early to predict whether our industry’s business practices will go back to the way they were, our chapter is prepared to provide content and networking opportunities for the new norms ahead of us. We plan to continue offering virtual components with our in-person events and programming whenever possible, allowing us to reach more of our members. Since September 2021, we have hosted nearly 20 events/activities with over 500 in-person and virtual attendees. With this in mind, we are looking forward to even more in-person events, so please join us to meet your colleagues, catch up and stay current with industry happenings.

We hosted our 30th Annual Symposium & Exhibition at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, home to the World Champion Philadelphia Eagles. We welcomed a record number of attendees (over 1,000!), which is amazing, considering this event was canceled the past two years due to COVID restrictions. The selling out of exhibition space in record time indicates that people want to get out and connect with clients and colleagues again. This year’s event featured additional speakers, onsite job interviews and an outdoor after-party.

We also hosted our Annual Golf Outing at North Hills Country Club on May 9. This puts us back in our regular May timeframe for this annual event. We did have an event this past September, which was the rescheduled outing from the previous Spring; it also sold out quickly. This is another indication our society is moving past the pandemic.

Upcoming Initiatives
Below are two of the initiatives we are working on to continually improve our organization and content offerings:

A content repository to allow members to access past education and program content. This would allow DVC members to access pertinent content as their technical needs arise.
A virtual student chapter replacing our current university-based chapters, utilizing social media. This allows current students to stay connected to ISPE information and events and also reach out with questions and receive answers quickly. We also plan to create a mentoring component to better guide students toward careers in our industry.

In closing, I would like to thank the 2021-2022 Board of Directors and Committee Vice Presidents for their tremendous work during all the ups and downs caused by COVID. While we navigated new waters and changed course as required, this created schedule changes and marketing campaign rewrites with short notice and all of you performed flawlessly. Continuing through the program year, the future looks bright and we welcome all to a new beginning!

If you have any comments, questions, or concerns about ISPE DVC, or would like to make a suggestion about future programs events or topics, please feel free to e-mail me directly at: president@ispedvc.org

Marvin “Guy” Royal
President, ISPE Delaware Valley Chapter