Marcos Salazar

AACR 2014 Annual Meeting

March 17, 2014

AACR 2014 in San Diego was an exciting opportunity for KeraFAST, and we’re happy to report that our first AACR meeting was a successful and rewarding trip. We would like to thank AACR for all the work they do, as well as for allowing us to exhibit at their conference so that we may reach out to the cancer scientists who attended.

We showed up at the conference with a minimalist approach to entice attendees. Our banner, a product handout, and a ton of white cowboy hats were the main components of our booth. The banner simply read “Are you white hat worthy?” in big, bold block letters. “What does that mean?” was the typical response we received from scientists when they approached us. Most were confused as to why we were selling hats. The marketing strategy to offer hats had brilliantly attracted scientists to our booth, and we were ready to educate them about our company.

Our team of scientists at AACR consisted of Bob (CEO), Jen (Vice President), Travis (Product Management), and me, Marcos (Marketing Manager). We enjoyed engaging AACR attendees in conversation by explaining to them our company’s mission, which is to serve an interconnected global community of life science investigators advancing science through ‘fair commerce’ in laboratory-derived academic research reagents. Scientists gave us their full attention in exchange for a free white hat. They heard how we partner with providing investigators, primarily from academic institutions, and market their research reagents that they’ve worked so hard to create. We make these reagents easily accessible through our website to researchers across the world. When researchers make a purchase, a substantial percentage of the profits go back to the providing researcher and institution.

So what was the significance of the white cowboy hat? Well in the old western movies, the good guys wore the white cowboy hats. We believe the researchers who provide and share their reagents with their colleagues are the good guys in science. The researchers who purchase these reagents are also the good guys in science, since a substantial portion of their purchase is returned to the providing researcher’s lab and institution. Therefore, the good guys in science are white hat worthy, as are those scientists who support them and our mission. It was a fantastic site seeing attendees wearing their white cowboy hats throughout the conference and even out and about in San Diego!

We valued our experience at AACR and made great connections with oncology researchers. We hope to develop meaningful relationships with these scientists as we continue to grow and build a strong research community. If you weren’t able to attend AACR and would like to learn more about our company’s mission and how you could get involved, please click the link below.

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Thanks again to AACR and all of the researchers who spoke to us and showed their support! Don’t forget to visit our Facebook page. We’ve posted many pictures of AACR scientists posing with their white cowboy hats. If you tag yourself and like our page, you’ll be entered to win a $250 Amazon gift card!