St. Louis Product Management Group

Our October meeting was be a special event, as we joined forces for the Inaugural PDMA St. Louis Chapter Meeting!

The PDMA is an organization dedicated to those creating new products and services, whether it be a consumer packaged good, financial service, or software.

This was the first ever meeting of the PDMA St. Louis chapter, and those associated with the St. Louis Product Management Group were invited to attend this special joint meeting. PDMA meetings normally have a cost to attend, though the PDMA St. Louis Chapter agreed to waive the fee for those associated with the St. Louis Product Management Group.

Here’s the details:

• Tuesday, October 14, 2008; 5:30pm
• Event Agenda
  • Dave Smoller, President of Research Biotechnology, Sigma-Aldrich: Opening remarks and welcome message
  • Tricia Sutton, PDMA Regional Director, Sutton Enterprises: The PDMA Lifestyle: How the PDMA can help you achieve deep impact for your career and your firm
  • Kevin Krosley, VP Process Innovation, Sigma-Aldrich: Achieving Great Heights; a brief overview of innovation and product development at Sigma-Aldrich
  • St Louis PDMA: Chapter discussion of exciting upcoming events
  • Sigma-Aldrich Innovation Center Tour
• Location: Sigma-Aldrich; 2909 Laclede, St. Louis, MO, 63103. (Google map to Sigma-Aldrich)
  • From the West:
    • Take Hwy 64 / 40 East to exit 38C (Jefferson)
    • Turn Left on Jefferson
    • Turn Left on Market
    • Turn Right on N. Ewing (just past Wachovia)
    • Left on Laclede
  • From the East:
    • Take Hwy 64 / 40 West to exit 34B (Garrison Lane)
    • Go straight on Garrison Ln. past Market
    • Dogleg right onto Laclede
    • Building on left

The St. Louis Product Management Group meets the second Tuesday of the month at 6pm at SAVVIS.

The September 2008 meeting was held on September 9, 2008 and the topic was Voice of the Customer and Voice of Sales for Product Development, presented by Jorge Restrepo from Express Scripts. In this presentation, Jorge talked about work at a former company where he developed a survey to understand how clients and the sales organization viewed the company’s products compared to the competition. He reviewed the results and discuss how they were used to drive changes to existing products as well as for new Product Development. You can download the slides from the meeting (PDF).

Here’s the details:

• 5:30pm: Arrivals, snacks, informal networking
• 6:00pm: Meeting begins
• 7:30pm-ish: Meeting adjourns
• Location: SAVVIS; 1 SAVVIS Parkway, Chesterfield, MO, 63017. (Google map of SAVVIS)
• The parking lot is located on the South side of the building. Enter through the main doors, take a left at the top of the stairs, and the meeting room is the last set of doors on your left. If the main doors are locked (they shouldn’t be), please buzz to security and let them know you are here for the St. Louis Product Management Group Meeting.
• Thanks to SAVVIS for providing the facilities for this meeting!