During the week of January 7th, I attended what one client has described, with only slight hyperbole, as a vast “petting zoo.” This would be the JP Morgan Life Science Conference held early in January each year in San Francisco, California.
Although our firm maintains both a robust life science and healthcare practice (note the plug), and although various of my partners from the East Coast and West Coast have attended JPM in the past, this was my first foray. For those of you acquainted with the event, you may choose to cease reading. However, for those of you have never attended, you may find the conference interesting.
First of all, most people who come to the conference do not attend the conference. You can be credentialed to attend the formal sessions; I cannot say what percentage of people show up in San Francisco and do not get credentialed, but clearly it is a very large number and indeed, anecdotally, I would say more than half.
Second, there are two other conferences surrounding the official conference. The first is a series of events and receptions run by venture firms, PEs, investment bankers and service providers which are open, in varying degrees, to people who sign up or are invited. These are networking events with a flurry of business cards exchanged.
Then there are private meetings and receptions, attendance at which is policed. “Crashing” these receptions is usually not possible. Among other things, investment banks and capital sources also hold office hours in suites in nearby hotels to evaluate deals.
A wide spectrum of healthcare and life science companies attend, from the most sophisticated biopharmas to companies in more mundane spaces. The conference enjoys a reputation as being “the” place to be for life science networking.
One final and perhaps interesting thought: amidst all the lunches, dinners and receptions with passed hors d’oeuvres, and amidst all the open bars, it is quite possible to starve to death. The pace of meetings, and the geographic spread of meeting places, is such that the idea of getting three regular square meals a day, at anywhere near regular eating times, is impossible. Hence, those of you who see me may notice a slightly added stomach bulge; those are the Danish pastries eaten on the run, between meetings.