Bangalore Bio 2003, Asia's premier biotech event and India's third biotechnology annual mega meet, has attracted more international attention both in terms of business generation and knowledge collaborations than its previous editions. The three-day event starting from April 15 to 17, 2003, is expected to bring together scientific manpower and capitalise on the Bangalore's advantage of 'bio-cluster' environment.
DraftWorldwide Promotions, the organisers of the 2002 and 2003 editions of the event attribute the increase in the number of participants mainly due to early marketing efforts that started around eight months ago. This gave ample time for participants to decide on participating after satisfying themselves about the importance of the event and its value in terms of business it can generate for them, said Vasanth R Davis, branch manager.
"Much of the success of the Bangalore Bio 2003 is based on the high value of the previous two shows. The events proved to be successful commercially, in terms of generating business leads and also their branding aspects have paid off," informed Raja Bhat, sales manager, Bangalore Bio 2003.
"Another factor that has attracted participants has been our networking strength and the presence of DraftWorldwide in 50 countries. With this, we have been able to coordinate with the 108 embassies and 40 trade commissions at New Delhi. We have conducted road shows at Singapore and Paris to tap the Asian and European markets. In India, our road shows were held at New Delhi and Chennai. Besides, we have been present in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune where the biotech companies converged for business conclaves. The key aspect was the comprehensive website of Bangalore Bio 2003 which proved to be an effective marketing tool and giving a stimulus to enquiries,'' informed Davis.
The exhibition has been looked up to as a prestigious conclave. In 2002, there were around 50 companies, 12 country representations, 15,000 trade visitors and 25,000 general visitors.
This year the exhibition spans an area of 5,000 sq m compared to last year's 2,500 sqm. "We have received more sponsorships compared to last year. More than 70 per cent of the companies participated last year are present this year,'' said Bhat.
The major change in the profile of the participants this year, compared to the last two years speaks for the increased scope of the event. In previous years, it was only the biotechnology companies, bioinstrumentation and related areas that participated in the event. This year, infrastructure companies like Mahindra Industrial Park Chennai, front line health care providers like the Sagar Apollo, companies like British Biologicals, AstraZeneca Research Foundation India, Saint Life, ABB Life Sciences will be present. "The event has enthused interest by pharma, healthcare and diagnostics and other related areas apart from core biotech companies," said Raja.
The event, which is a government of Karnataka initiative, has become a platform for companies to outsource services, recruit talent and tap new markets. The main objective of the earlier events was to capitalise the strengths of information technology sector and see how software skills and bio-talent could work together. This has led to some companies entering into Bioinformatics and training institutes like the IBAB and the Institute of Bioinformatics.
An attraction of this year's event is the knowledge pavilion to attract students who have been eager to gauge the education and employment opportunities. The international conference on 'Indian biotechnology -building a global business' could broadly assess the investments targets in the sector.