Leaders, Entrepreneurs, Partners and More: Live Blog from #LSC2012

2:15 pm
A big thank you to the more than 950 people who made or annual celebration of life science a success. The team at CED had been a fantastic partner for this event for 21 years.

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1:55 pm
Deborah Dunsire of Millennium echoes a phrase i've heard several times at this conference.

Inflection point.

It's as if we know that biotechnology can have an enormous impact on all that we do. Investors have bet big time on that potential. Regulators are trying to figure out how to make sure all the new ideas are safe. And the public, which struggled with science in school, wants the miracle without the risk.

But the path to success has been slowed. It's a challenge for all of us here to figure out how to smooth that path. It's not just the future success of our economy that we're confronting; it's the sustainability of the world.

If that's not an inflection point, I don't know what is.

1:30
Lunch was delicious, and now I am contemplating the chocolate cake. Yum.

Our own Ken Tindall is presenting the NC leadership award to Sam Taylor, president of NCBIO.

In addition to getting us up for coffee on Tuesday mornings, Sam is a strong voice for the life science community with the legislature and one of the biggest connectors of industry, education, academia in the state.

Sam thanks his organization, and accepts on behalf of NCBIO. Classy.

1 pm
Blogger had been in some meetings talking about new ideas. It's pretty exiting what we have coming up for the NC community in the next few months.

We've also wrapped up the Beaker interviews, and I am now enjoying lunch. Thanks to CED for letting me crash their table - it is packed in here!

All of us are currently being blown away by a couple of high school students, who, best as I can tell, have combined research from three different fields to come up with a treatment for diabetes.

Best quote: "So we write a differential equation to interpret the data..."

It took me two semesters to diff eq in *college*

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10:30 am
The CEO panel has a range of expertise to contribute, but they settled on a common perception. As hard as you hear it is for small companies to raise money, these guys understand venture financiers have an expensive, risky case to make to their partners and investors.

> Advice includes recognizing the VC firms specialty, make sure the firm had money, be specific about what you can achieve and when, and make sure your product can be differentiated in the market. It's no longer enough to have a great idea.

Also, sometimes you have to be lucky.

9:20 am
Cities, consumers, customization and one other C were the structure for Pepsi's Mehmood Khan. He's challenging us to rethink, well, everything as we work to meet global food demand

Off to facilitate more Beaker.com interviews.

9:04 am Thursday
Alex Gorsky framed his opening address today as the best of times and the worst of times.

The worst:
Three main challenges facing us are the economy and the neat certainty of slow recovery. Second, healthcare has changed, introducing more decision makers and removing doctors control of the system. Third, as we've heard over and over, regulatory.

The best:
Aging population will increase demand. We've got some great science going on, which makes the term convergence real.

Let's hope the Dickensian analogy stops there.

8:40am

In the spirit of NC's welcoming climate, Gorsky thanked us for the 60 degree weather when he got off the plane. He is a frequent visitor to our Outer Banks as well.

Also, an optimistic introduction from the President of Square One bank. NC is among the top ten in receiving VC, and the bank is focused on this early stage of investing. One of my best employees ever works for him now.

5:45pm
The 16 companies presenting are wowing the audience with actual revenue numbers and customers. meanwhile, more of the 243 (give or take) meetings at NCBiotech partnering continue. Those leaving are continuing their conversations in the lobby. I'd call that a success!

3:22 p.m.Early conclusions from finance panel. No easy answer, this is a new reality where you struggle to get every dollar, whether from venture or ipo.

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2:54 pm
It's hard to get people back in from break. Time for the financing panel. Too many goods connections being made in the lobby!  

2:30 pm
Live blogging isn't all it's cracked up to be. particularly from a phone on a Drupal interface.

Chris Viehbacher wrapped up his remarks with an invitation to North Carolina for more partnerships with Sanofi. Trending on twitter during his talk were thoughts on talent retention, healthcare reform and getting new ideas to market. Also check out his 7 vision points for Sanofi.

Governor Jim Hunt welcomed the crowd earlier, touting North Carolina's number 3 ranking, our 58,000 biotech jobs, and the $64.6 billion biotech contributes to the economy. Thanks to our creator for those remarks.

Noon
Things are just getting started here is at the CED life science conference. I am hanging out at the Beaker.com interview spot listening to Victor Dzau talk about the challenge of keeping up with the growth trajectory in the life sciences. Infrastructure is the key challenge when keeping up with Boston, San Francisco and other leading cities.