L-R: Tony Lamantia, Donna Heslin, Helen Filipe, Mayor McCallion, Darren Lum, Susan Amring, Julia Hong
(L-R: T. Lamantia, Heslin, H. Filipe, Mayor McCallion, Lum, S. Amring, J. Hong)

Biotech conference exposes student to mayor, industry and new opportunities

Donna Heslin
d.heslin@utoronto.ca
Main News

BIO is the world’s leading biotechnology conference and is held annually in different biotech hubs across North America.  Recently, BIO was held in San Diego and attracted over 15,000 attendees from across the globe.  This conference draws together biotech and pharmaceutical businesses of all sizes, financial institutions, venture capitalists, academic institutions and relevant government partners. The Master of Biotechnology program has been either an exhibitor or an attendee of this conference for the past 13 years. 

For Darren Lum (MBiotech student, Class of 2015) this was his first opportunity to attend BIO. “I found the greatest benefit from BIO 2014 was meeting the people from different companies around the world…Meeting with all of the different organizations was an eye-opening experience, revealing an amazing diversity in opportunities.”

The newly launched Institute for Management & Innovation partnered with the City of Mississauga and the Province of Ontario to secure a booth within the Ontario Pavilion and worked closely with the City to ensure it represented Mississauga and the outstanding talent pool that IMI is creating through its sector specific management programs.  Specifically, the booth highlighted the Master of Management of Innovation (MMI), Master of Biotechnology (MBiotech) and Master of Science in Sustainability Management (MScSM) programs to a great deal of interest. 

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, who attends BIO annually, highlighted the importance of UTM's close partnership with the city and the excitement that IMI is creating. IMI was represented in a roundtable discussion hosted by Mayor McCallion that included some of Mississauga’s leading biotech partners from industry, not-for-profit organizations and academia. This discussion gave the various attendees the chance to share their needs with government at all levels, and to lobby for the development of solid policy to support the biotech industry.

The IMI team will continue to partner with the City of Mississauga in the coming years and is now planning for BIO 2015 in Philadelphia.