Thanks to the 100+ people who came to our November 11th event featuring Sapphire Energy–you can view all of the photos on the Flickr group we set up (feel free to add comments). We had a few glitches at the event, and got some good feedback on what you’d like to see next time. We had about 15 Sapphire employees in attendance, and people had a good time chatting with them and learning more about the company. They also presented at a Biocom breakfast the next day, and both events were covered on Xconomy, a “next generation” news organization. Our name tag color-based networking “system” worked–perhaps not exactly as we had planned, but it served to break the ice among the participants and to facilitate networking, here are some comments we heard:

• “I handed out so many business cards that I ran out and had to go get more out of my car.”




• “By far and away, last night I connected with more scientists and executives than I have ever before.”




• “When is the next event? You should hold these every month!” (echoed many times)

If you’ve got a comment to share, leave it below (just remember how shy and sensitive we are before being critical ;). We gave away a few small prizes from our SDBN Cafe Press store, and Comprendia provided USB keys with biotechnology career resources. Blue Horse and Trumpet helped with planning, PR, provided the marketing materials, and took pictures. Thanks to everyone who helped and participated (esp. our volunteers–not sure if they want to be called out here ;). With your help, we feel like we’re really on to something here, and it was exciting to see everyone connecting both in person and on-line using the LinkedIn group.

When and where will the next event be? We will likely move to another venue because we expect the turnout to continue to be larger than the Rock Bottom will accommodate. We’ll likely have the next event in January, and we are very actively looking for a new and/or exciting companies to cover, please give us your feedback on who you’d like us to feature. We do plan to ask the featured company to give a short presentation, as many of you commented that it would add value to the event. Thanks to everyone, and we’ll let you know as soon as we schedule the next event. If you didn’t attend the event, be sure to sign up for updates.

We’ve recently put together a presentation that will help you to grow your biotechnology career: Marketing 101: You First. The presentation describes how to position and promote yourself to make the most out of your career, using marketing principles. The presentation is specific to biotechnology careers, and includes relevant information for resources specific for the industry. On the San Diego Biotechnology Network website, we’ve put together a listing of more than 300 San Diego biotechnology companies, to help you with your job search: http://sdbn.org/directory. Also, check the Comprendia career page often for updates: http://comprendia.com/career. Our next two Marketing 101 Series presentations follow:

1. Marketing Your Biotechnology Company: How to present an image for your company that will help you to gain funding and successfully launch.
2. Marketing Your Biotechnology Product: Developing and promoting products that will lead to short and long term revenue growth.

Stay tuned to the “Marketing 101 Channel” so that you can utilize marketing principles at every stage of your biotechnology career, and sign up for updates to get messages in your inbox.

San Diego Biotechnology Network’s November 11th Happy Hour, a “Meet and Greet” with Sapphire Energy, Tues. Nov. 11th, 5:30-8:00 p.m., Rock Bottom La Jolla, 8980 Villa La Jolla Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037. Cost: $10. Reservation and confirmation required.

Neuroscience 2008, the 38th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, November 15-19, Washington, D.C.

San Diego Biotechnology Discussion Group November Meeting, What, Where & When TBD

Cold Spring Harbor/ Wellcome Trust, Pharmacogenomics, November 19-22, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA