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Buffalo Niagara Shows Strong Regional Presence at BIO 2011

Last week, I had the pleasure of joining a consortium of Buffalo Niagara research institutions, agencies and private life sciences companies exhibiting at the 2011 BIO International Convention in Washington, DC.  BIO is the largest gathering of its kind in the world, with this year‘s version boasting an estimated 1,800 exhibitors and 25,000 attendees, many of whom are C-level executives and decision-makers.  Exposure to this group continues to position Buffalo Niagara as a major life sciences destination for new and growing companies.

Traffic to the Buffalo Niagara booth was very strong this year, with over 200 individual booth visitors conversing with regional representatives.  In addition, several of our private companies utilized the booth space for meetings with potential customers, suppliers and investors.  Some meetings were arranged in advance, while others spurned from a booth stop-by.  On Wednesday, the busiest day of the convention, the booth was visited by Empire State Development President & CEO Kenneth Adams, who was visibly impressed with our region’s collaborative presence at this year’s conference. 
Many of the participating members took advantage of an opportunity to meet with a top staff member of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to discuss ways she can support our region’s flourishing life sciences industry. 

The Buffalo Niagara exhibit was made possible by the combined effort of the BNE, the UB Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and the Life Sciences (CoE), Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) and a generous matching grant from BNE investor National Grid.  With the purchase of the exhibit booth, we were able to open up the conference to private companies, many of which may have been kept out of the show due to registration costs.  In exchange for a shift working the Buffalo Niagara booth, companies were offered a free exhibitor pass, opening up a world of opportunity on the exhibition floor. 
For more information on this year’s BIO convention or to participate next year, please contact me.