After having to make a last-minute switch to an online format in 2020, the organizers of the annual Respiratory Drug Delivery (RDD meeting) had more time to plan a virtual meeting for 2021, and they have introduced new features designed to create “a conference experience informed by the best features of an in-person conference augmented by a design that is only possible online.” The most prominent new feature of RDD 2021 is the introduction of virtual “knowledge spaces”: five themed areas where content will be organized for efficient access and where delegates will have the opportunity to interact with other attendees and vendors.
In December 2020, the organizers announced that RDD 2021 would take the place of RDD Europe 2021, which had been scheduled for May 4-7 in Antibes, France. Now that registration for RDD 2021 is open, more details of the virtual meeting have been announced. According to Richard Dalby of RDD Online, which is co-organizing the meeting with Aptar Pharma, the knowledge spaces are meant to “make sure that the meeting is a bit more like a real meeting” and to increase the ability of delegates to encounter content that is relevant to their particular interests.
Exhibitors, posters, presentations, and workshops will be grouped together by theme in each of the knowledge spaces, and registered delegates will receive a link prior to the meeting allowing them to opt in to a messaging system that will facilitate communication with other delegates, vendors, and speakers. Content in the knowledge spaces will be available to conference attendees on demand 24 hours per day beginning April 27 and continuing through June 30.
The five knowledge space themes are:
- Pulmonary Progress: Respiratory Science Responds to SARS-CoV2 and Lung Diseases
- Propelling Inhalation Forward: Tools to Facilitate Low GWP Propellant Transition
- Towards Greener Connectivity: Balancing the Needs of Patients and Our Planet
- Perfecting Inhaled Particles: Advanced Inhaled Formulation Science
- Front and Center – The Nose: Evaluating Regional Nasal Deposition
Live programming will take place May 4-7 beginning at 4-6:15 pm CET and will offer moderated “Explore with Experts” panel discussions with the presenters of the pre-recorded talks available in the knowledge spaces. The first live session will include a discussion of the plenary lecture, “Mechanisms of Alveolar Injury and Fibrogenesis: Developing Stratified Approaches for Pulmonary Fibrosis Treatment” by R. Gisli Jenkins of the University of Nottingham.
