BIO International Convention
This year’s convention was held in Philadelphia, PA, from June 3-6. More than 16,000 attendees from around the globe, including 67 countries, gathered for high level partnering, education, and networking. The BIO International Convention is hosted by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), which represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations.
Frederick County Office of Economic Development and City of Frederick Department of Economic Development were part of the Maryland Commerce and Maryland Life Sciences (Maryland Tech Council) delegation of 31 biohealth and life sciences companies, educational institutions, federal agencies, and city and county economic development offices. The Maryland booth was a 2,800 square-foot space well positioned on the exhibit floor, which generated interest and visibility for the Frederick companies in attendance, as well as promoted Frederick, Maryland as a great location to do business. Frederick County had an impressive showing of local companies in the booth including A2LA, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick Innovative Technology Center (FITCI), Meridian BioGroup, Rooster Bio, and Texcell North America.
The key benefits for attending the convention is access to biotech and pharma leadership via One-on-One meetings as well as networking in the exhibit hall and at events throughout the week. Prescheduled meetings using the conferences online matchmaking system allowed for very engaged conversations with companies looking to do business with other businesses in our market as well as creating interest in expanding or moving businesses to Frederick County. The ability to work with our partners in the booth and pull additional vital experts into these meetings created an environment of collaboration that left companies with a compelling reason to do business in Frederick. The team also engaged businesses that are emerging and quickly expanding on the exhibit hall floor adding to the contacts and prospects for new businesses here in the county.
The week was capped by a networking reception hosted by Maryland Commerce where Secretary Kelly M. Schulz addressed the event speaking to Maryland’s strength, innovation and bright future. Invitees included existing and prospective Maryland businesses as well as international life science publications gathered to have partnership and investment conversations. The Frederick County delegation in attendance at BIO returned with over a 100 new connections, leads and referrals that will continue to be worked with in the coming year.
SelectUSA Investment Summit
The U.S. Department of Commerce hosts the summit each year in Washington DC. This year’s event was June 10-12 and had more than 3,000 attendees at Washington Hilton. The purpose is to connect global business to local investment opportunities and is the highest-profile event dedicated to promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States. The event brings together companies from all over the world, economic development organizations from every corner of the nation, and other parties working to facilitate business investment in the United States. Leading up to and during the show we were able to connect with the International Team of Maryland Commerce and learn about additional opportunities to host spin-off events in future years for attendees to visit Frederick before and after the summit.
This was the Frederick County Office of Economic Development’s first time attending the event and Matt Doyle, Attraction Business Development Specialist was on site to share business location intelligence with potential investors actively seeking business opportunities in the United States. Prescheduled meetings were set up with companies identified as actively researching investment and site selection services. The meetings were held with companies in summit’s categories of Biopharmaceuticals, Manufacturing and Software/IT. Many of the representatives that were met with will be looking to plan visits to Frederick County in the future.
