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DIA 2027 · San Diego, CA

Track 6: Professional Development and Project, Program and Portfolio Management

This track provides opportunities for life sciences professionals to enhance their leadership capabilities, career development strategies, and project, program, and portfolio management expertise to deliver successful outcomes in an evolving industry landscape. It welcomes content across two focus areas: Professional Growth and Leadership Development, and Project, Program, and Portfolio Management & Strategic Leadership.

  • Professional Growth and Leadership Development Themes: Topics focused on career and leadership growth, communication in regulated and scientific environments, business acumen, critical thinking, and organizational savvy. Includes leveraging technology such as AI, virtual reality, learning management systems, and microlearning, applying ethical principles to technology use, and understanding how organizational culture shapes performance, promotion, and career advancement.
  • Project, Program, and Portfolio Management & Strategic Leadership Themes: Topics focused on value realization with strategy, planning, and execution across the lifecycle. This includes and is not limited to: project management skills, new ways of working with novel therapeutics, emerging capabilities, new tools (e.g., AI) and flexing leadership styles to navigate an evolving industry landscape. Project Managers increasingly need know-how to drive organizational transformation, expand value and access in emerging markets, and to foster innovation and acceleration.

Whether building individual skills, advancing team performance, or delivering complex programs, this track equips professionals with the knowledge, strategies, and tools to succeed in a global, regulated, and rapidly changing environment.

Themes
  • Professional, Personal, and Leadership Growth: Developing resilience, leading through ambiguity and change, managing up and across functions, and building sponsor, ally, and mentor relationships
  • Strategic Career Planning and Workforce Evolution: Designing and owning your career path through upskilling, reskilling, succession planning, internship and apprenticeship models, and connecting career growth to enterprise value
  • Communication and Influence in Regulated and Scientific Environments: Building credibility, preparing for regulatory authority interactions, and strengthening scientific and regulatory writing across global teams
  • Thought Leadership, Executive Presence, and Personal Brand: Developing a credible professional identity and point of view through speaking, publishing, networking, internal influence, and digital presence to expand impact, strengthen career mobility, and position yourself as a trusted leader
  • Business Acumen and Organizational Savvy: Understanding how organizations operate, make portfolio decisions, generate value, and link personal contributions to enterprise strategy
  • Critical Thinking and Decision-Making in the Age of AI: Applying critical thinking, evaluating AI outputs, and maintaining human judgment in decision-making
  • AI Fluency for Regulated Work: Leveraging agentic AI, AI-assisted work under GxP, AI-enabled submissions, predetermined change control plans, and human-in-the-loop approaches
  • Leveraging Technology for Advanced Career Journeys: Using AI, agentic AI, virtual reality, learning management systems, gamification, and microlearning to enhance skills and career development
  • Preparing the Future Regulatory Workforce: Building technical literacy and regulatory competencies for emerging technologies, advanced therapeutic modalities, and evolving regulatory expectations.
Project, Program and Portfolio Management & Strategic Leadership Themes
  1. Project, Program, and Portfolio Management Best Practices: Executing programs under time and cost pressure, accelerated submissions and critical path management, and cross-functional risk management
  2. AI-Enabled Program Management: Leveraging agentic AI to streamline deliverables, improve program management, and enhance project execution
  3. Portfolio Decision-Making: Applying portfolio decision-making to prioritize investments, allocate resources, and support strategic leadership
  4. Cross-Functional Leadership and Organizational Transformation: Leading cross-functional teams, managing risk, and driving enterprise transformation
  5. Emerging Capabilities, Therapeutics, and Technology Integration: Applying project management approaches for emerging therapeutics, technology platforms, and evolving regulatory expectations.
Key Questions to be Addressed
  1. How can life sciences professionals strengthen leadership, critical thinking, AI fluency, and business acumen to drive greater organizational and enterprise impact?
  2. How are AI, agentic AI, and emerging technologies transforming professional development, regulatory work, project management, and workforce evolution while maintaining quality, compliance, and appropriate human oversight?
  3. What project, program, and portfolio management strategies best enable organizations to execute complex development programs under increasing time, cost, resource, and regulatory pressures?
  4. How can organizations strengthen cross-functional leadership, workforce development, succession planning, and organizational transformation to prepare the next generation of life sciences leaders?
  5. How can professionals and organizations build the technical, regulatory, and strategic capabilities needed to support emerging therapeutic modalities, evolving regulatory expectations, and future models of drug development?

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