San Antonio bioscience leaders plan to pursue second World Stem Cell Summit

Jul 8, 2015

BioBridge Global CEO Linda Myers has a mission: She believes San Antonio has proven that it is an ideal host site for the World Stem Cell Summit and plans to call on organizers to consider bringing the international conference back to the Alamo City.

BioBridge Global has a subsidiary, QualTex Laboratories, which has a presence in Atlanta, where the 2015 World Stem Cell Summit will be held in December. As it was last year, BioBridge Global will be a co-organizing sponsor of the three-day conference, and Myers plans to leverage that investment.

“One of the reasons we are going there is to make a big splash, to try and get that summit back to San Antonio,” said Myers about BioBridge Global’s participation in the Atlanta conference.

“I think we have a good shot at it,” she added. “We are going to … lobby (summit organizers) very hard for this. San Antonio is going to knock on their door again.”

Other bioscience leaders believe San Antonio has every reason to try and win back the World Stem Cell Summit.

“I feel confident in saying that those of us who helped attract last year’s summit and served on the host committee would love to see it return to San Antonio again,” said BioMed SA President Ann Stevens. “I believe our chances of landing it again are excellent.”

Bernard Siegel, who founded the World Stem Cell Summit, told me as the 2014 event was winding down, that San Antonio has provided impressive support.

“The city really came through, and we are thrilled,” Siegel said. “San Antonio rated an A+.” Stevens said the value of San Antonio hosting the event is that the city’s bioscience industry received “incredible media attention” by hosting the 2014 summit.