Yesterday at the beautiful Pan Pacific Hotel, ZINO Society was the proud presenter of ZINO Life: Life Sciences Investment Forum along with our partner, WBBA. We were very pleased to have around 120 members and guests in attendance to hear 15 entrepreneurs present their companies’ needs divided into three dealflow flights: Seed Stage, Launch Stage and Expansion Stage. (See alphabetical list and links of the 15 presenting companies below at the bottom of this blog post.) Each of the entrepreneurs was carefully screened and then coached to be successful in presenting their pitches succinctly and clearly in 7 minutes each with 2 minutes following for questions and answers. Though we are usually quite time sensitive and strive to stay on the agenda schedule at all of our events, we were thoroughly impressed with the results and that we were able to stay completely on schedule for the entire afternoon with Events and Marketing Manager, McKenzie Powell’s chimes warnings and agenda timing tools. Or maybe it was the delicious chocolate treats that brought people back to their seats so effectively that sponsor, Stoel Rives, shared as part of the coffee break they sponsored.
In addition to the entrepreneur presentations, we had the opportunity to hear insights and experiences from keynote speaker Patrick Jensen of SpaceLabs during the “Fireside Chat” portion of the afternoon (see top photo above). However, in the spirit of full disclosure, there was NOT a fireplace in sight! Following the keynote, the expert panel discussed some of the opportunities and the challenges facing life science companies and included David Schubert, President of Accelerator Corporation; Marty Simonetti, President of VLST Corporation; Chris Rivera, President of WBBA; Michelle Burris, COO of Trubion; facilitated by ZINO Life major sponsor Alan Smith, Partner at Fenwick & West, (see 2nd photo above). Alan did his usual great job of extracting and managing the plethora of information that our expert panelists were ready to share.
Patrick Jensen then joined the expert panel to participate in the Due Diligence LIVE! process to question the three entrepreneur finalists (see 3rd photo above) selected by the ZINO Life 2010 Investment Fund investors. The three finalists gracefully surviving their due diligence grilling were Kevin Connolly of SRS Medical, Carole Spangler of Seattle Sensor Systems and Paul Slowey (aka “Dr. Spit”) of Oasis Diagnostics Corporation, who was also last year’s winner of the ZINO Life 2009 Investment Fund.
The ZINO Zenith Award winners were selected by all the attendees at the event via written ballot. Winning the award for Best Presenter was Richard Lazar of DeltaPoint and for Best Investment Opportunity was Carole Spangler of Seattle Sensor Systems (see 4th photo above).
The event concluded with fantastic passed hors d’oeuvres provided by our venue sponsor, Pan Pacific Hotel, and wine and beer courtesy of our ZINO Society Wine/Beer Professional Members, Don Wood of Icicle Ridge Winery, Joseph & John Miglino of Martedi Winery, and Charles & Rose Ann Finkel of Pike Brewing Company (see 5th, 6th and 7th photos above). Along with the excellent beer and wine selections, conversations flowed!
Next stop is ZINO Life Portland on April 29th with a new set of sponsors, expert panelists and keynote speaker, but the same screened and coached presenting entrepreneurs. Click here for registration info.
ZINO Life Presenting Companies:
Looks like a great event.
ReplyDeleteYes, we were very proud of the quality of the dealflow and the entrepreneurs all did a really great job with their presentations.
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