We organized a three-day conference in Toronto at the MaRS Convergence Centre from May 2-4, 2007. The conference brought together leaders from the global health community, venture capitalists, industry experts, academic researchers, students and executives of biotechnology firms from over 9 countries, including India, China, Brazil, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Canada and the United States, to discuss the lessons learned of this project to date and to facilitate international partnerships for global health.

The conference garnered national and international attention with plenary talks by Professor C.K. Prahalad (author of The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid) and Dr. Carol A. Dahl (Chief of Staff, Global Health program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation).

Over 200 registrants participated in this conference, including 70 genomics/health biotechnology firms that gave company presentations, 35 of which were SMEs from emerging and developing countries. We facilitated 50 partnering meetings, and are tracking several ongoing partnerships in serious negotiation as a result of these meetings. Through our evaluation, we learned that an overwhelming majority of participants expressed interest in attending the conference again, which reinforced our thinking that this is a needed approach for addressing global health needs.