Members and Friends,
Register NOW for Women Building Bio 2021! Join us on September 30th for our 6th year of Women Building Bio with our theme: “Investing in Ourselves: Growing Stronger and Better Together.” Last year’s virtual event saw over 200 registered participants and was headlined by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s (BIO’s) CEO Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath and Miss America 2021 Camile Schrier (a Virginia Commonwealth University Pharm.D. candidate). This year’s conference will continue our focus on advancing the bioscience ecosystem for women through collaboration between industry and academia, research and innovators, professionals and decision makers. Specifically, we will focus on Investing in Our Companies (learn what investors look for from women-owned/managed biotech companies); Investing in Ourselves (helping more women to become active angel investors); a “How We Got Here” panel spotlighting the unique journeys of women biotech leaders; and numerous company spotlights and VIP messages.
This year’s format is a hybrid half-day virtual conference with special networking and collaboration tools/activities. Content will be available to every attendee online, but we have also designated 5 locations across Virginia and Washington, DC that can each accommodate up to 30 in-person attendees. The specific locations are: Charlottesville (Indoor Biotechnologies), Newport News (ivWatch), Roanoke (Virginia Western Community College), Richmond (GSK Consumer Healthcare), and NoVa/Washington DC (Children’s National Research and Innovation Campus). Contact Frank Wilton to learn more about sponsorship opportunities.
Register today!
Virginia Invests in Biotechnology in Inaugural Round of Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) Awards. Earlier this month, 14 life science companies were among 34 Virginia technology companies who received a total of $3.4 million in CCF awards, a program under the new Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA). From the announcement: “[This] round offered grants of up to $100,000 to advance early-stage technology projects in strategically important industries through product or service development, market research, intellectual property protection, marketing, pilots, and more. Award recipients will provide 1:1 match funding.” This investment is the latest example of the Commonwealth’s ever-expanding support of our industry. We applaud CIT and VIPA for making this inaugural series CCF investments in our industry! Congratulations to our members who received awards in this round: AgroSpheres, BEAM Diagnostics, Bonumose, Cerillo, Jeeva Informatics Solutions, Meru Biotechnologies and ZeoVation.
Remember…Check out the New Website and Member Portal! Thanks to all of our members who have logged on to the new www.vabio.org. A kind reminder that our members must create new logins. This will give you access to the new Member Compass, which allows you to update your profile and access exclusive content. Don’t worry…all of your previous information is already in the new membership system; we merely need you to create new credentials. The first time you log on, please follow these instructions:
- Go to the member login page at members.vabio.org/login.
- Enter your email address and follow the prompts.
- If the email entered is connected to your profile, you will be prompted to set your new password.
- If we do not have the email on file in our new system, you will be prompted to create a new account.
Once you have logged in, you will be taken to your Member Compass to update your profile, see events that you are registered for, pay invoices, and more. Be sure to update your profile! We are excited for you to join us on this new platform. If you have any questions during your registration process, please contact Amy Rose at rose.amy@vabio.org.
Upcoming Events:
Please click here to see the most current information and registration links for all of Virginia Bio’s and our industry’s events. Here is a summary of upcoming events, as of this writing:
- August 23-27, 2021: Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center’s Game Changer Week. An industry gathering including webinars, happy hours, startup mentoring, special guests open houses, Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council’s Tech Nite, and more.
- September 13-14, 2021: BioHealth Capital Region Virtual Forum, September 13-14. For the 7th straight year Virginia Bio is co-hosting this regional event. More importantly, Virginia is taking a leading role in forming and placing Virginia companies on several panels under the theme “Big Bio…Big Data…Converging.” Last year’s event saw over 1000 registered.
- September 30, 2021: Women Building Bio 2021! Registration details here.
- October 19-21, 2021: George Mason University’s Accelerate 2022 Pitch Competition. From the website: “The competition fuels innovation-based business growth by showcasing the best and brightest new business concepts to potential investors to foster their development within Metro DC. The competition targets entrepreneurs with early- to mid-seed-stage businesses[.]”
- October 27-29, 2021: Southeast Life Sciences AdvanSE Annual Conference and PitchRounds, October 27-29, Charleston, SC. This is the southeast’s main event for the biopharma, medtech, diagnostic, and digital health industries wishing to do business in the region. It will also include PitchRounds, Southeast Life Sciences’ annual small company pitch presentation. We encourage our members to attend the AdvanSE and PitchRounds.
Your Ideas. Virginia Bio wants to hear from you! Contact us at questions@vabio.org with your ideas, comments, suggestions and advice regarding how Virginia Bio can best support you and our biotechnology ecosystem.
Please stay safe and let us know how we can help you. Thank you for all that you do to make Virginia’s life science ecosystem stronger!
John