Randal Charlton will have a hard time topping 2009.

The big news for Charlton, the executive director of Detroit’s TechTown, the technology park and business incubator affiliated with Wayne State University, came in October when the World Stem Cell Summit announced its sixth annual meeting would be in Detroit this Oct. 4-6.

The summit brings together some 1,200 researchers, government officials and representatives from pharmaceutical companies from more than 30 countries.