By Ben Navon, MSLGROUP Americas

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick addresses onlookers at the Massachusetts Pavilion Welcome Program on June 18 during the BIO International Convention in Boston.

BIO’s annual international life sciences convention kicked off in Boston yesterday, and despite the broader economic climate, industry luminaries see reasons for optimism.

The event, which is expected to attract more than 15,000 attendees from around the world, will be highlighted by approximately 125 panel discussions featuring hundreds of speakers expounding on various topics covering everything from bridging the gap between science and healthcare to making personalized medicine a reality in the age of biomarkers and companion diagnostics.

This is BIO’s first trip back to Boston since 2007, when Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick first announced the state’s ambitious 10 year $1 billion life sciences initiative aimed at strengthening the local innovation ecosystem. Although reports have surfaced that the initiative did not spur as much academic activity as originally anticipated, there are many international biotech clusters that view Boston as the model for success.

In fact, One Nucleus, an international life sciences trade association based in the United Kingdom, co-hosted a breakfast panel discussion with Stockholm-Uppsala Life Science, Scandinavia’s leading life sciences cluster (and an MSLGROUP client).

Key Take-aways

The focus of the panel was on building a better biotechnology cluster and featured speakers from BIOCOM, Edinburgh Bio Quarter, Karolinksa Development and the City of South San Francisco. Some of the key attributes the panelists associated with standout biotech clusters included:

• a strong research infrastructure backed by leading academic institutions
• an expansive entrepreneurial network
• an abundance of seed and venture capital, as well as
• a local government invested in providing the necessary tax benefits and municipal improvements to spawn the next generation of innovative life science companies—all of which Massachusetts boasts.

However, the key takeaway from the panel was the resounding need for more international collaboration, and that leading biotechnology clusters must pool resources and communicate openly in order to achieve the common goal of fostering new scientific and medical breakthroughs. BIO is a great venue to begin making those connections.

So, in between all your partnering meetings, breakout sessions and cocktail parties, look for us on the show floor. We’d love to connect with you as well.

Originally posted on Schwartz MSL PrX blog.

Follow Ben Navon on Twitter: @BiotechBen