Virtual Society Office

International medical and scientific societies have always had “virtual offices” because the staff could never be in all places where the members, leaders and other stakeholders are located. Today’s advances in information technology have transformed the way international societies communicate, network and disseminate their message. We specialize in providing non-profit scientific and medical societies professional management that is enhanced by a website content management system working together with an online association management system.

Integrating an online association management system (AMS) with a WordPress responsive website (CMS), or other CMS, to enable web-based communications, membership, meeting registration, abstract management, program planner, e-posters, access to meeting presentations & audio/video and the society’s finances.

Society Office Technology to Match the Level of Innovation of Scientific & Medical Societies

A non-profit professional society’s most valuable assets are their membership data and the important, innovative content generated by their scientific meetings and journals. We specialize in streamlining the management of mid-sized scientific societies and providing transparency and efficiency to grow dynamic organizations to help their members succeed.

Joan founded her association management company in San Francisco in 1993 to support international scientific and medical societies, expanding to three full-service association management contracts and several symposia management contracts, working with a team of three highly motivated full time staff within five years of establishment. Moved company to Germany in 2005 becoming fully virtual and specializing in management of International Workshops & Symposia. Became the Managing Director of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society (ICIS) in 2017 and the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP) in 2018, as well as managing a few related scientific meetings such as (Tularemia International Society, EBV Association and KSHV Workshop), organizing successful meetings in Boston, San Francisco, New York City, San Diego, Hawaii, Chicago, Vienna, Athens, Paris, Dublin, Grenoble and Montreal, as well as Virtual & Hybrid Meetings during the COVID pandemic.

Joan Oefner was honored with the 2020 ICIS Distinguished Service Award in recognition for her extraordinary contributions and service to the ICIS and to the cytokine research community at large. At Cytokines 2024 in Seoul, Joan was honored with a named ICIS Student/Postdoc Member Travel Award. Now after eight years managing the International Cytokine & Interferon Society, it is time to pass the torch to Stephanie Flores, CAE, who also took over another former client (casss.org), as we focus on a select number of scientific associations and meetings, providing hands-on leadership and all services to ensure their success and continuity.

I have always wanted to find a business partner – meet Hannah! She’s been attending scientific meetings since she was 6 months old…this was her idea and she’s been studying and interning in the field of association management, entrepreneurship

Hannah Oefner, Masters Student at Pepperdine Graziadio & MCI, Innsbruck

Event Assistant – Internship

Event Assistant –

Check in Agent – I nnsbruck, Tyrol, Austria

Education

Pepperdine Graziadio Business School –

MCI | The Entrepreneurial School® –

FH Kufstein Tirol – University of Applied Sciences –

CURRENT & RECENT Managing Director clients:

From December 2016 – December 2024 International Cytokine & Interferon Society (formerly ISICR and ICS), Joan, and her Virtual Office, replaced the staff at the FASEB campus in Bethesda, MD which had managed the ISICR and then the merged society since 1996. Membership subsequently grew from 600 – 1,2000 international members across different research disciplines, with annual meeting participation ranging from 750 – 1,200 participants. ICIS is the premier organization promoting the field of cytokine biology, impacting all aspects of medicine and leading to new treatments in autoimmune diseases, cancer, infectious diseases and inflammation. Please visit the society’s websites designed by Rhema Association Management:

Awards:

2024: New Student/Postdoc Travel Award Named after Retiring Managing Director, Joan Oefner READ MORE

2020 ICIS Distinguished Service Award goes to ICIS Managing Director, Joan Saluzzi-Oefner READ MORE

Since December 2017 – International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP), Joan’ Virtual Office took over the management and Annual Meeting organization. Please visit the website we designed for more information: www.isdp.org. The first order of business was to set up a fully integrated, responsive online association management system using www.i4a.com for membership, meeting registration, abstract submission, and awards applications. We are using OxfordAbstracts for the online abstracts, program, attendee networking and ePosters. The International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (ISDP) is an international non-profit organization which encourages research on the development of behavior in all organisms including man, with special attention to the effects of biological factors operating at any level of organization. The society holds annual meetings to facilitate communication of research results and theory in the area of Developmental Psychobiology. The ISDP strongly supports and encourages young scientists with travel awards, networking and meeting events designed specifically for the students.