By Tom Crosby, Marketing Manager, LSN
On Monday of this week, Life Science Nation played host to its first conference, Redefining Early Stage Investments, in Boston’s State Room. Over 300 life science industry CEOs, investors and service providers joined together 33 floors above the city for an event that far exceeded anyone’s initial expectations of it – including our own.
LSN set out to organize this with a single idea – the world of private life science investment has changed, but the industry was still navigating via an old roadmap. The countless investor conferences LSN staff had attended were more akin to a memorial to the venture capital days of yore than anything else, and no one was talking about the new categories of investors rapidly entering the space. The RESI concept was to create a forum of entrepreneurs and active early stage investors discussing the marketplace and starting a dialogue that would hopefully lead to some allocations.
Fast forward five months – Over 300 attendees, discussing the hottest investment trends, emerging technologies, and walking away with the beginnings of new partnerships. The impressions that came out of the partnering meetings were overwhelmingly positive. One investor remarked that he had never been to a partnering event where “everyone had such a clear fundraising agenda.” An attending CEO said of RESI that he “couldn’t emphasize how interesting the networking was. The conference was free of many later stage companies that really inhabit a very different universe.” Much to LSN’s satisfaction, these reactions are indicative of the vast majority of feedback received so far.
As a first attempt, the RESI Conference can be said to be a great success. However, there is always room for improvement, and in the coming weeks, LSN will continue to field impressions from our first event as we prepare for the next. We have learned some valuable lessons already, and are taking them fully into account. LSN plans to monitor the attendees of the conference closely in the coming months, so stay tuned as we report out on success stories.
One attendee reflected to me a simple idea that summarized the goal for this event: “[The RESI Conference] fills a gap in the market.” As a company – and as an conference – LSN and the RESI Conference will continue to do its best to fill gaps in the market, create disruptive events, and ultimately, be an advocate for early stage companies seeking to move science forward. Finally, a special thanks to everyone that made this groundbreaking event possible – we look forward to seeing you all again soon!
Tags: biotech, biotechnology, CMO, consulting, CRO, family offices, Fundraising, investor, Investors, issue, letter, life, Life Science, life science nation, medicine, nation, news, newsletter, pharma, Pharmaceutical, private equity, research & development, science, startup, venture capital
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