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This article was prepared for the September 12, 2001 edition of

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Life in the Fast Lane: MediTech Media

Susan J. Potton and Marie-Claire O’Boyle came from

the United Kingdom to 202 Carnegie Center to open the second United

States office for an international healthcare communications group,

MediTech Media (MTM). The 200-person company, established in 1987,

provides research and marketing support services for corporations

and scientific societies. The International Medical Press is the

company’s

independent publisher and conference organizer.

"We offer a whole service of communications," says Potton.

"We run meetings and events for pharmaceutical companies as well

as for other healthcare associations." Conference planning

services

include programming, designing themes, finding and leasing venues,

contract negotiating, arranging speaker and delegate logistics,

providing

expert technical advice, making travel arrangements, and on-site

management.

For the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, the firm attracted

2,000 individuals for a conference on hepatitis and liver disease.

Potton was product director for a migraine and headache conference

that brought 3,000 experts to London.

Potton says the company policy is to use local suppliers for

conference

services in an effort to develop its network in the community. Its

own in-house services include over-the-counter product management;

medical education and communication programs; medical writing, design,

and production; public relations, conference and meeting organization;

exhibitions; multimedia; webcasting; and marketing research.

The multimedia division, for instance, webcasted the 1998 world AIDS

conference in Geneva, and last year it put up websites to chronicle

a mammoth headache conference in London and the International

Symposium

on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Disease in Atlanta. Among its showcase

websites are a searchable, online service on viral resistance; a

website

on bipolar disorder for Glaxo Wellcome, and Glaxo’s "Positive

Action" site on HIV education, care, and community support.

Potton grew up 50 miles north of London, in Bedfordshire, where her

mother ran payroll services and father was a surveyor. After

graduating

in 1983 from Redborne College in Bedfordshire, she worked in

Bournemouth

in hospitality and meeting management and in London for the

government’s

Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center. "At that facility we hosted

major international meetings, such as the G-7 summit meetings and

a huge variety of national and international medical groups,"

Potton says.

She joined Meditech Media three years ago. Last year she was working

on meetings in Philadelphia, New York, and Atlanta, among other

locations.

"I feel comfortable moving out here to live," says Potton,

"both in my convention sales experience and in the location."

That she is single and has no children helps her focus on the launch,

she believes. "It’s a great opportunity, it’s always exciting

to be starting something new."