Mayor Menino Welcomes 2012 International BIO Convention
Jun 17, 2012
This week, Mayor Menino is welcoming international and national delegates to Boston for the world’s largest biotech and life sciences convention. The 2012 International BIO Convention is being held June 18-21 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in the Innovation District. Attendance is projected to be 16,000 and will infuse $26.8 million into the City’s economy during the week. Mayor Menino and BRA staff have developed a targeted and strategic business agenda for BIO, including tours of the City’s top life sciences clusters, company meetings with CEOs from around the country and world, and a major business development event to welcome new companies to Boston and to pitch to hot prospects.
“Boston is a global life sciences hub – a super cluster – it is innovation, collaboration and success. I’m pleased to invite the world to our city where for 17 years in a row we’ve led the nation in NIH funding reaching $23 billion.”
Monday morning, Mayor Menino will officially kick off the convention at an event at Fan Pier, which will include an announcement with Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Fifty national and international convention participants will tour the Innovation District, Boston's latest life sciences cluster. The tour will include:
· A firsthand look at the nation's first public innovation center under construction.
· Fraunhofer’s sustainable energy research and building innovation center
· Boston Marine Industrial Park
· Drydock Labs, nucleus of the life sciences startup community.
Last week leading up to the convention, tours were held in the Longwood Medical area and BioSquare in collaboration with MASCO and Boston University, and a boat tour showcasing the city from the Harbor was held for early international arrivals.
On Tuesday, June 19, the City will host a major business recruitment event to pitch new prospects on bringing their life sciences companies to Boston. Additionally, Mayor Menino will recognize the 14 new life sciences companies that have come to Boston in the last 2 years, bringing 2,700 new jobs to the City.
On Wednesday, June 20, Mayor Menino and BRA staff will meet with life sciences companies specializing in fields like drug and molecule development and cutting edge mobile lab design that have been targeted for Boston’s life sciences super cluster.
On Thursday, June 21, to round out convention events, Mayor Menino will celebrate the groundbreaking on Longwood Center in the LMA alongside project developer National Development and project investors. The $350M project will add 350,000 SF of new R&D space in Boston’s original life sciences cluster and contributes tremendous benefits to the community.
Follow all of the great events at the 2012 BIO International Convention live via @mayortommenino @bostonredevelop @bostonbio2012.
About Life Sciences in Boston
In 2004 Mayor Menino created LifeTech Boston, an initiative administered by the BRA to foster the growth of life sciences in the city. LifeTech attracts local, national and international companies offering them assistance with site selection, financing, workforce development, and the permitting process. Since the inception of LifeTech the number of life sciences companies in Boston has doubled.
The life sciences industry is a key employer in Boston. Twenty percent of the City’s workforce is employed by one of our medical or higher learning institutions, and 13,000 are employed in the biotech and life sciences industry. While giants like Genzyme, Merck, Pfizer, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals call Boston home, over half of Boston’s life sciences companies are start-ups.