Association for Corporate Growth, San Diego Summer Social Thursday July 17th 5-9 p.m. La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club

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OK, you collected a TON of business cards at BIO, now what? Get the most out of your BIO 2008 attendance with careful follow up:

1. First, keep the business cards as they were originally collected (mine are in groups according to the days I spoke to the people) and write any additional notes on the back of each card soon, while it’s still fresh in your mind. You might even want to write down when and where you talked to the person, so that you can refer to it during your initial contact with them.
2. Think about your strategy for following up, and organize the business cards accordingly. Are there some contacts you feel that are more pressing than the others? Did you make several different types of contacts? The categorization will be specific to your objectives for the conference. Also consider whether any upcoming business trips would be merited. For example, if you made many contacts in Boston, you can tentatively plan a trip there, and mention it in the email to your new Boston contacts.
3. Before emailing to your new contacts, make sure that your email signature contains all of the information needed to contact you, as well as a link to your website. Make it as easy as possible for them to evaluate your value proposition by including targeted links or small attachments.
4. In the email to your new contacts, be sure to refer to details of your conversation with them, and be sure to emphasize why they should remain in contact with you, or meet with you. In other words, answer the question in their minds “what’s in it for me?”
5. The LinkedIn online network is a great way to connect to people and to simultaneously show them your professional experience and network. However, you cannot send attachments in the LinkedIn invitation emails, and not everyone uses it. To get around this, you can include a link to your LinkedIn profile in your email text or signature, and those who use it are likely to follow the link and add you as a connection.
6. Short boilerplate paragraphs in the text of your email are fine, to describe your value proposition. Just be sure to personalize the email wherever possible by mentioning their needs, and ways you see that you can help them.
7. Close with an indication that you will follow up with a phone call. That way, if it appears that they have ignored the email, you can still have one more chance to make a connection. Remember also that connections may not be fruitful immediately, and be patient.

Good luck!

Is there a dearth of blog posts on Bio on the Road this morning because everyone was up late partying? Maybe. I went to the Women in Bio party early last night at the Mr. Tiki lounge, complete with leis and Hawaiian food and drink (no spam). I made a lot of great contacts and met very knowledgeable people in the field. After that, I went to the BIO 2008 Gala Reception Gaslamp Quarter Block Party on 5th. The party was complete with mimes, fire dancers, and other entertainment, along with great food from the restaurants on 5th street. Being from San Diego, I left early, as living in a great vacation spot is never as fun as visiting . . . hope you all didn’t stay up too late. Have a great day and see you in 2009 in Atlanta!

I’ve spent most of my time on the BIO 2008 exhibit floor, networking for Comprendia, and I’ve noticed that there are many environmentally friendly promotional items, with cloth bags being the most common. I even got a kit to help make my house more environmentally friendly from our local energy provider, SDG&E. Interestingly, at least one biotech company, Vertex, is using a fluorescent light bulb as the focus of their current marketing campaign “targeting a bright future.” Kudos to them for being ahead of the curve on realizing this new type of earth-friendly light bulb appeals to scientists and consumers alike.

In general, there is also an association between the color green and being environmentally friendly, and some companies are capitalizing on this. The “rage” at BIO 2008 are the bright green crocs-style shoes that one company is giving out (I can’t remember the name, but they are in the 1000 aisle). I walked by their exhibit yesterday and the line was very long! Some people even switched out their dress shoes to model these wonders of fashion . . . amazing how high level scientists and biotech professionals still have such an attraction towards free items.

I read somewhere that is an increase in the number of companies choosing the color green for their logos, to capitalize on this trend. Does this include Comprendia? Well, we do strive to be green in providing earth-friendly promotional options to our clients, and traveling only when absolutely necessary, relying on web-based services to meet, but we also just happen to like the color green.

Of course, the BIO 2008 schedule and logistics also center around green initiatives. All day today in Room 28 AB, the Industrial and Environmental track will have presentations on the development of clean technologies and affecting climate change. BIO 2008 organizers are also implementing a number of green , such as composting, leftover food donation, and recycled carpet.

Do all these initiatives and ties to being green just make us feel better, or do they motivate us to elicit change in the climate crisis? I think biotech should embrace the green concept in many ways, from the way we portray ourselves, to our operating logistics, and most importantly in the objectives we set for our businesses. Reversal of climate change is going to come from us, there is no question about it. Let’s get to work!

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Mary has a unique blend of scientific and marketing expertise, allowing her to quickly distill technical details into an actionable plan to grow biotechnology or life science business. Mary has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and 10 years of direct experimental experience at Duke University, University of California Riverside, and Scripps Research Institute. Mary’s scientific career included X-ray crystallography, protein purification and characterization, and computational/visualization techniques. In 2000, Mary left academia and has worked since at Invitrogen, EMD Biosciences, and ActiveSight. Working in a number of capacities in the marketing and business development groups at these companies, Mary has demonstrated success in strategic and tactical marketing, and has excelled by bridging her scientific background with a passion for marketing. Mary’s strengths include developing and implementing marketing plans and strategies, online media, product development, and project management. You can view Mary’s LinkedIn profile for more information.

Mary founded Comprendia in 2008, realizing the need for high-quality marketing services in small and mid-sized biotechnology and life sciences companies. Mary’s wide-ranging contacts in life sciences, drug discovery, diagnostics, and scientific media allow her to bridge diverse specialties towards the goal of meeting clients’ needs to grow their business through customized marketing. Mary can be contacted at mcanady@comprendiagroup.com.

On Monday night, I attended the Biotechnology Institute’s reception and banquet, honoring top science teachers and the high school student finalists in the Sanofi-Aventis International BioGENEius challenge. San Diego’s own Jay Vavra, of High Tech High in Point Loma, won the Genzyme-Invitrogen Biotech Educator Award, being judged as the top biotechnology educator. It is truly amazing what these biotechnology teachers and students are doing these days. Jay and his students are involved in a project sponsored by Invitrogen and San Diego Zoo’s CRES developing methods to barcode African bushmeat, and they are also traveling to Africa to demonstrate the techniques. Teachers are now combining biochemistry, physics, chemistry, and forensics into biotechnology education, creating a truly interdisciplinary and attractive way for our future scientists to learn. The projects from the BioGENEius challenge finalists can be viewed at Upper Level, Ballroom 20 Lobby from 8:30-5:00 today, Wednesday June 18th.

At the banquet, I also met Lisa McDonald from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). She told me about JCVI’s DISCOVER GENOMICS! mobile laboratory, which is a fully functional laboratory on a bus, used to teach kids about the techniques used in biotechnology today. The bus currently serves the metro DC area, and there are plans underway to support another bus that would serve San Diego when the JCVI UCSD facilities are opened. JCVI is committed to teaching young people about science, and the bus is quite impressive.

Overall, it was a very interesting night. I’ll admit that I had gone to network, and didn’t know much about the Biotechnology Institute, but came away with a better appreciation of biotechnology education in the US. With the current cuts in education, notably in California, we need to remember the importance of educating these future scientists who will face ever-increasing challenges in healing, fueling, and feeding the world.

Well, it has been a very busy week in San Diego biotech. We’re all getting ready for the big BIO 2008 conference, and we also got the news that Invitrogen(IVGN) acquired Applied Biosystems (ABI). The deal appears to have “something for everyone,” as Invitrogen CEO Greg Lucier will remain CEO, but the new company will take the ABI name and be headquartered in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego.

How will the companies integrate? The idea seems good on paper (as did the Time/Warner AOL merger), as the products are complementary: IVGN has the consumables that can be used with ABI’s instruments. Lucier has been quoted in saying that the merger will “double the consumables business.” One thing that is glaringly obvious to me, having been through several biotech company integrations, is that the sales forces of the two companies will be vastly different and perhaps difficult to integrate. Although instruments and the consumables used in them seem very straightforward to sell together, it is very difficult to get an instrument sales person, who is accustomed to a longer sales cycle and larger commissions, to sell smaller items. We’ll see how the sales force is structured–there is no reason why the different types of account managers can’t work together.

Lucier has assuaged fears of the return of integration problems that occurred during previous mergers, stating that the IT infrastructure is much more robust now. I believe that, as my casual conversations with IVGN employees seem to reflect that much has been done in integrating six sigma principals into many aspects of operations, likely including IT.

I have always been intrigued at how casually biotech and life sciences companies treat brands, as it appears all Invitrogen products will be re-branded as ABI (although I have no inside information that this will happen). We’ve seen this happen many times (GE Healthcare, Millipore, recently) and normally, Invitrogen has been the great “amalgamator” (Life Technologies, PanVera, Molecular Probes). In other industries, brands are treated very carefully, as it is understood how important brand equity is in attracting and keeping customers. Perhaps in the life sciences, we are all used to constant change by now?

236th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, August 17-21, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA