Speed dating, or more accurately, partnering, is a distinct feature of nearly 35 meetings held each year by the biotech community. Partnering presents organizations with opportunities to meet companies and funders to discuss potential product development collaborations. It also allows a large number of these meetings to take place over a relatively short amount of time, saving participants significant resources. Meetings take place during 30-minute intervals in a massive room divided into cubicles, much the way speed dating works for single people. But rather than sitting down next to someone with whom you have nothing in common, organizations can use partnering software to research companies ahead of time, including the individual delegates who will be attending and information on products and licensing.
Last week, BIO Ventures for Global Health and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) announced the 2010 Partnering for Global Health Forum, which brings this concept of partnering to the intersection of biotech and global health. The Forum, which begins May 3rd in Chicago, will be co-located with BIO’s International Convention – the industry’s largest partnering event. A primary benefit of the co-location is that registered non-profit, academic, governmental, and non-governmental attendees will have full access to the BIO Convention’s Business Forum, the site of all the partnering activity. Past BIO Business Forums have been attended by more than 1,700 companies, and more than 50 percent of those companies were international.
In addition to three dedicated days of partnering from May 4-6, the Partnering for Global Health Forum will feature one day of high-impact panel discussions on May 3 that will showcase emerging market strategies, collaborative business models, and the impact of market-based incentives, all directed at encouraging industry investment to confront pressing needs for innovation and explore new avenues for progress.
Registration opens this week at
www.pgh.bio.org. Will you find your match?
Representatives from for-profit institutions will have to register separately to attend the BIO Business Forum. Those already signed up for the BIO International Convention can attend the Partnering for Global Health Forum as an add-on to the Convention. For more information on registration fees, visit www.pgh.bio.org.
Jennifer Manganello is the Development Associate at BIO Ventures for Global Health.