Melissa Walsh, COO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center
What a week it’s been! We had many positive outcomes from the 2009 BIO International Conference, concluding today in Atlanta, including a great many business development conversations with companies and international delegations. Traffic at the Massachusetts Pavilion was consistently strong throughout the show, with strong interest in the Massachusetts supercluster and our Life Sciences Initiative.
The Massachusetts “Big Bang” Pavilion was a microcosm of our state’s life sciences community — with companies, academic and research institutions, economic development agencies and related service providers represented. One of the greatest outcomes was the positive collaboration between all of our exhibitors to make this a successful show. Everyone worked together to make the pavilion a welcoming space and to make our events successful as well.
I can’t count the number of times exhibitors referred leads to other booths in our pavilion for further conversation. It is this sort of collaborative spirit across our life sciences community that makes Massachusetts the global leader in life sciences.
The show floor closed at 3 p.m. today and we are returning to Massachusetts with hundreds of follow-up meetings and conversations to schedule. The trip to Atlanta was well worth it!
Next year’s show is in Chicago, Ill. See you there!