Paramount Recruitment will be at this year’s Festival of Genomics 2018 in London from 30-31 January to share the company’s unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities to attracting talent within the wider industry, as well as getting to know more of the movers and shakers in the sector. Thinking of going along too? Here’s our top 5 reasons to attend:

You might learn something

The Festival of Genomics brings together people from drug development, healthcare, research institutions, academia, commercial businesses and everyone in between, all with the common agenda to share ideas and insights, challenge perceptions and foster collaborations.

There’s an exhibition area, where you’ll find organisations showcasing their latest technologies and software, there’s a poster display where academics can present summaries of their latest research plus a packed programme of industry speakers running across the two days. The talks are interesting and informative, but not too science heavy (although there are a few like that).

It’s the only one held in Europe

The Festival of Genomics is held in three locations each year; London, San Diego and Boston, so make the most of it while its here in the UK. Its free to attend, so you only need to sort out your travel to and from the ExCel centre.

You might make some good connections

The festival has plenty of networking opportunities as you rub shoulders with people from across the industry. The Tree of Life cafe or the relaxation area are ideal for less formal introductions and starting conversations with people who might be useful to know as you progress in your career. Paramount Recruitment will also be holding an invite-only networking event at the end of the first day.

The results of the 2017 genomics salary survey will be revealed

Paramount Recruitment will be sharing the results of its 2017 Genomics salary survey – carried out in conjunction with Frontline Genomics – exclusively at the Festival. The salary survey is the first of its kind for the industry and the findings will be presented as handouts in every delegate bag, which include details of how genomics fairs with the gender pay gap and how UK salaries compare to the rest of Europe and the world.

Paramount Recruitment will be on the ‘Genomics 2017 – This Was Your Year’ discussion panel

Paramount’s Eugene McDaid will be on a panel discussing the major talking points for 2017 and looking at what’s in store for 2018. Eugene will be chatting about topics such as the salary survey, talent in the industry, how Brexit will affect future recruitment and the need for improvements in the education system to ensure the UK is able to meet future demand for talent in the genomics sector.

The discussion will be chaired by Carl Smith, Managing Editor for Front Line Genomics magazine and other speakers on the panel include Anna Middleton, Head of Society and Ethics Research at Connecting Science (Wellcome Genome Campus), David Smith, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo Clinic, and Miika Ahdesmaki, Associate Director (Bioinformatics) for AstraZeneca. The panel event is on from 13:00-13:45 on 30 January on Stage 4.

We’d love your feedback, so use the hashtags #ParaGenomics #genomicsfest to tell us what you thought about the discussion.

Alongside Eugene, the Paramount Recruitment team will be out in force at the Festival of Genomics finding out about the latest industry developments and making connections of our own, so if you are coming along and would like to arrange an informal catch up, please drop us a line to informatics@pararecruit.com or give us a call on +44 (0)121 616 3475.