We are having a most awesome time in Chicago. Here are five reasons why:
1) Our lodgings. Being a startup with a lean budget (not to say cheap) we let Hotwire find our hotel room. Hotwire did not let us down. The Chicago South Loop Hotel has been a very nice home away from home within walking distance (or an easy cab ride) from the convention center.
2) Making connections with people face to face, people we know only through the literature or journal articles, is priceless. The Bio Convention organizers have done an amazing job making this behemoth of a convention run smoothly from registration to meeting scheduling.
3) The global aspect to the meeting brings home the fact that Science and commerce these days is totally a small world thing. Science, like math, is a universal language without borders or (in its purest form) politics.
4) Chicago herself is a gracious host city. How she managed the most gorgeous weather in North America I'll never know. But we're grateful.
5) The cherry on top! Dr. John Aletta was visiting the Novo Nordisk booth in the Exhibition Hall when he was encouraged to enter a drawing. On the spot he won a brand new Apple iPad!!!
And this is only Day One of the meeting!