Sep 18, 2025
Kathleen Laurie | Vice President, New Business Development - Proposal Services and Support
Nate Wible | Executive Vice President, Managing Director - Medical Communications
When it comes to advisory board meeting success, preparation is more than logistics—it is a strategic differentiator. While the right mix of advisors provides the foundation for valuable discussion, the planning shapes how insights are surfaced, interpreted, and applied.
At Precision AQ Medical Communications, we have led advisory board meetings across dozens of therapeutic areas and with a range of decision-makers. We have seen firsthand how clear objectives, thoughtful agendas, and pre-engagement strategies elevate the quality of insight and impact. Whether the goal is to shape a clinical development program, refine scientific messaging, or explore market barriers, successful engagements start well before the meeting begins.
In this second installment of our Four “Ps” series, we highlight the importance of preparation that aligns with business goals, respects advisor time, prioritizes budget spend, and drives meaningful dialogue.
Preparation Is Strategic, Not Administrative
The planning phase of an advisory board meeting sets the tone for everything that follows. This is where strategic intent is translated into structure and thoughtful design choices shift a routine discussion into an insight-rich engagement. We want advisors to participate in an environment and format that allows them to bring their best thinking forward.
A well-prepared advisory board meeting is one that begins with clarity:
- What do you need to learn?
- How do you want to use those insights?
- What will success look like when the session concludes?
With those answers in hand, you can reverse-engineer an experience that drives toward outcomes, not just conversations.
Start With the End in Mind
Every advisory board meeting must be anchored by a set of clearly defined objectives. Without them, discussions tend to drift, time is spent inefficiently, and valuable insights risk being lost in the noise. Beginning with the end in mind means understanding:
- What specific questions do we need answered?
- What decisions will these insights inform?
- How can we structure the agenda to elicit those answers?
Once those questions are identified, the agenda and discussion guide should be developed to ensure alignment in the output. Every element, from pre-meeting surveys to discussion prompts to wrap-up summaries, should move the conversation closer to actionable insight.
Leverage Pre-Meeting Insight Gathering
One of the most effective ways to prepare for a productive meeting is to gather advisor input in advance. This can be accomplished through brief surveys, polling tools, or asynchronous discussion platforms in the weeks leading up to the meeting.
Pre-meeting engagement has multiple benefits:
- It primes advisors to start thinking critically about the topic.
- It surfaces early patterns or divergences in perspective.
- It allows advisory board meeting strategists to tailor the agenda based on advisor responses.
For example, if a pre-meeting poll reveals wide variation in how advisors approach patient triage or diagnostic pathways, those findings can be used as a launchpad for discussion. Rather than spending time collecting responses live, the session can focus on understanding the “why” behind the differences, creating deeper dialogue and more focused outputs.
Design the Agenda to Fit the Format
Today’s advisory board meetings bring advisors together in-person, virtually, asynchronously, or through a hybrid approach. Each setting requires a different format to maximize advisor engagement and insight collection.
In a recent survey, approximately 76% of respondents preferred meetings with a virtual component¹, driven by both cost efficiency and widespread comfort with digital platforms. Virtual formats can be just as effective as in-person sessions if the agenda is designed to optimize engagement.
Format-specific best practices:
- Virtual Meetings: Use polling, breakout rooms, and visual collaboration tools to encourage active participation. Keep sessions under 2.5 hours and use pre-reads or asynchronous components to reduce cognitive load.
- Asynchronous Engagements: Moderated platforms allow advisors to comment on each other’s input, offering flexibility to contribute when it’s most convenient. Incorporate clear prompts and deadlines to help maintain momentum and focus throughout the discussion.
- Hybrid Sessions: Clearly define how both in-person and virtual attendees will contribute equally. Consider pre-recorded content or parallel online discussions to create cohesion.
- In-Person Meetings: Create tactile, interactive elements that drive collaboration (e.g., mapping exercises, patient journey workshops). Allow for informal networking that strengthens relationships over time.
Plan Activities to Drive Dialogue
Didactic presentations may offer clarity, but they rarely spark debate. If the goal is to uncover barriers, pressure-test strategies, or co-create solutions, then the format must invite that kind of interaction. We recommend integrating structured activities into the agenda that push advisors beyond surface-level commentary and establish the foundation for strong collaboration.
Examples include:
- Case-Based Scenarios: Present a realistic patient case and ask advisors to map their clinical decision-making process, step by step.
- Live Polling Comparisons: Use pre-meeting survey results to show aggregate responses, then ask advisors to explain their rationale live.
- Treatment Mapping: Invite advisors to outline treatment sequencing for complex patients and explain their clinical reasoning.
- Guided Debate: Pose a provocative question and assign advisors to differing positions to explore nuances.
These activities encourage active problem-solving and generate richer data than open-ended Q&A alone. Planned experiences create a more dynamic setting to keep advisors engaged and focused throughout.
Make Time for Depth, Not Just Coverage
A common pitfall in advisory board meeting planning is trying to cover too much ground. While it’s tempting to address every open question or strategic challenge, doing so can dilute the impact of the meeting. Instead, prioritize depth over breadth.
Focus on 2–3 core objectives per session. Each topic should have sufficient time allocated for discussion, clarification, and synthesis. If breakout groups are used, ensure enough time for debrief and integration into the broader dialogue. Cramming multiple topics into a short session leaves little room for reflection—and even less for meaningful insight.
If multiple topics are important, consider a series-based approach. For example, an initial session might focus on treatment decision-making, while a follow-up explores HCP education strategies. Sequenced engagements allow for more deliberate conversation and allow sponsors to act on insights between sessions.
Prepare to Capture and Translate Insights
Insights are most valuable when they are captured, synthesized, and translated into action. Strong preparation ensures that internal teams know what to listen for, how to probe meaningfully, and how to separate signal from noise.
At Precision AQ Medical Communications, we support clients by developing structured insight capture tools, real-time discussion frameworks, and post-meeting synthesis deliverables that translate advisor input into strategic next steps.
Having a cross-functional team aligned before, during, and after the meeting ensures that insights can be immediately socialized with brand, medical, market access, and clinical colleagues. This kind of integration helps ensure that advisory board meetings aren’t siloed exercises, but rather catalysts for cross-functional alignment and action.
Preparation Sets the Tone for Participation
Ultimately, preparation isn’t just about setting an agenda. It’s about setting expectations. Advisors will come to the meeting more engaged if they know their time will be well spent, their expertise will be respected, and their input will be acted upon.
Creating an environment that’s conducive to thoughtful exchange is both art and science. The ultimate success of an advisory board meeting starts with being intentional about who is in the room, what the goals are, how the session will flow, and how success will be measured.
As we move into the third “P” of participation, we’ll explore how to build the kind of meeting dynamics that foster real-time collaboration, deeper advisor investment, and more actionable output.
Sources
¹ Petrus C, Lam H. Considerations for Planning Effective and Appealing Advisory Boards and Other Small-Group Meetings with Health Care Providers: Importance of Participant Preferences. Pharmaceut Med. 2024;38(4):311–320. doi: 10.1007/s40290-024-00531-0