Life Sciences Capitals

Yesterday we had the great honor of presenting our business and our first product, QuickGene, to the Dutch heavyweights in the life sciences industry. This took place in the Beatrix Theater in Utrecht at the yearly Life Sciences Capitals conference, which is a meeting place for businesses, investors and any interested parties in the field of life science.

The conference provides numerous activities, including workshops on specific topics, such as biomarkers, where specialists and companies present their views, achievements and predictions. A number of exhibition stands were present in the foyer where we had the pleasure of meeting Peter Sijmons, the director of LabScores, Chrétien Herben, the valorisation manager at the Netherlands Genomics Initiative, and many more.

Our focus was primarily on the investor's forum, where start-up companies were given ten minutes to pitch themselves and their product. This provided us with a great opportunity to make ourselves known to the life sciences world and to meet some of the more influential people there. We held our presentation early although we had been up most of the night adding the finishing touches, as can be expected before a big day. The excitement of the experience kept us running and that seems to have reflected well in the presentation. As the only software company at the forum, we received much interest and many optimistic reactions. It's always a great reassurance to hear we're on the right track!

Afterward, we mixed and mingled with the rest of the participants and visitors, taking time to visit a few of the science talks as well. It was a pleasure to make the acquaintance of Peter Sijmons, who has been running LabScores, another lab-related software company in the biology field, successfully for many years.
His experiences were very interesting and provided us with a few tips, such as how to create useful help videos as an exceedingly friendly way to provide customer support.

The stand of the Netherlands Genomics Initiative also intrigued us, as genomics is exactly what we're about. Chrétien Herben was especially informative about their valorisation activities and how the Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre or NBIC may be a useful resource. Currently, we rely on a very limited number of beta-testers to create new ideas and prioritize development of features in QuickGene. Collaboration with the NBIC may provide a larger pool of ideas and possibly financial support and advice, as well.

It was truly a fun experience and a completely new one for all of us. It certainly won't be the last time we attend a conference and presenting our product has become something we always look forward to doing. Overall, we had a great day, managed to take home some valuable advice and let the community know CrimsonBase is moving up!