Mini-JPM: Biotech Showcase™, in its eighth year, is working hard to become a mini-JP Morgan. But it is mini no longer. It’s web site touts 306 company presentations and almost 2,500 attendees, putting it on a company presentation footing comparable to J.P. Morgan with about half the estimated JPM attendees. They also created two one-day tracks dedicated to connecting medtech and digital health companies and investors. With so many companies and attendees, this has become the Jupiter of the J.P. Morgan satellites.
Rising star: This is only the second year for the one-day RESI conference (Life Science Nation’s Redefining Early Stage Investments) during JP Morgan week but they reported the week prior to the conference that they had more than 288 confirmed companies. Among the companies were 30 chosen and spotlighted as part of the RESI Innovation challenge. These 30 were deemed most innovative by Life Science Nation’s internal scientific review board and their technologies were on display in the exhibit hall throughout the conference. Conference attendees were invited to participate in a virtual investment contest in which each attendee could invest up to $500,000 in “RESI Cash” in 1-5 companies whose technologies they were most impressed by.
Rock stars: The StartUp Health Festival was the furthest from Union Square but they packed their venue offering an opportunity to hear startup luminaries such as Vinod Khosla, Dean Ornish and Craig Ventner in “Fireside chats”. They report that over 1,000 investors and participants registered for their two-day event, and enough showed up that the StartUp Health Café was packed and the “intimate Fireside Chats” were standing room only.
Non-Investor conference: In contrast to the rest of the conferences, the 11th Annual Non-Dilutive Funding Summit provided a one-day focus on non-dilutive funding. Panelists and participants included representatives from NIAID, NIBIB, NINDS (all NIH) and NCI and DoD. This conference is organized by the FreeMind Group which specializes in helping life science companies secure non-dilutive funding from US Federal Agencies and Private Foundations, and it features mostly panels and opportunities to meet with these representatives to discuss company projects rather than presenting company pitch decks.
Focus on Fundamentals: Also in sharp contrast to the Biotech Showcase and RESI, the OneMedForum conference was a much less crowded event with far fewer companies participating, and only a single presentation track throughout the three-day event (including China Forum on Wednesday). The new location was extremely convenient - half a block from Union Square, yet sessions and partnering tables were uncrowded. Unlike other conferences, OMF did not offer any panel sessions Monday or Tuesday, focusing instead exclusively on the business of connecting companies with investors. Unlike other venues, service providers were scarce. The lower density of participants did not seem to impair the ability of determined companies to make many investors connections. Several companies I spoke with reported 20 or more high quality investors meetings so perhaps the no frills model has a niche too.
It will be interesting to see if all these events are still in orbit around JPM next year and how each morphs to try and grow and stay relevant to companies and investors alike.