Record Attendance at FMMC Symposium

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On May 6 and 7 I attended the Florida Medical Manufacturers Consortium (FMMC) symposium.   This year marked their 10th anniversary.   John Ray, Executive Director of FMMC told me membership had doubled in the past two years.  So it was no surprise attendance was a record.   The mission of FMMC is to promote networking, industry knowledge & expertise and advocacy for the Florida Medical Device Industry.   Florida is now ranked second in the nation with over 660 medical device manufacturers.

This is the third year that ColumbiaSoft has been an exhibitor at this conference.   We co-exhibited with Mary McCoy, president of Prism Plus Consulting, our partner in the greater Tampa area.   Our exhibit featured ColumbiaSoft’s document change control for regulated documents and was well received by attendees.

FMMC fielded a strong bench of presenters this year.  Two of the more notable were the keynote addresses by Dr. Jeff Shuren from the FDA and John Jung from BB&T Capital Markets.

CDRH Director Dr. Jeff Shuren gave the FDA keynote.   His presentation described the initiatives the FDA has been taking to be more responsive in order to approve submissions on time.    During his discussion he referred to several charts to support the improvements the FDA has made.  However, during the Q&A session some of the questioners said they weren’t seeing the improvements the FDA was striving for.

The second keynote was given by John Jung, Jr., Senior Managing Director with BB&T Capital Markets. Mr. Jung’s presentation, entitled Climbing the Cliff: The Economy at a Crossroads, described the unique competitive advantages of the U.S. market.   His slide deck included several charts and statistics that indicated we have probably passed through the worst of the economic downturn but we still face distinct challenges in a competitive World economy.  He said the greatest challenge we face is political gridlock and the failure of our politicians to take action.  In spite of these comments he is optimistic that over the next few years the country will resume its normal growth trends.

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