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The statewide association for the bioscience industry, BioFlorida, plans to add some beakers, and members, in the Sarasota-Bradenton market.
The West Palm Beach-based organization, with seven chapters statewide, has held two well-attended meetings in the region this year and a third is scheduled for June. Part of the reason for the expansion is the growth in area companies, investors and economic development officials interested in bioscience.
“Some very respected players in this industry are coming to the area,” says Michael Van Butsel, a DPR Construction executive and the Sarasota-Bradenton BioFlorida Chapter Business Chair. “They are starting to talk it up.”
More than 60 people participated in each of the first two meetings, says Van Butsel. One was held at the Roskamp Institute, a nonprofit biomedical research center, while the other was held at Sarasota-based product design firm Robrady. Van Butsel says the meetings, in addition to a pitch for new members for BioFlorida, were strong networking opportunities for bioscience businesses. A venture capital investor was at the most recent meeting, for example. Robrady also won some potential new business from contacts it met at that session. “We're here to help advance the business of life sciences and research,” Van Butsel tells Coffee Talk.
Another reason for the BioFlorida chapter expansion into Sarasota-Bradenton is sheer logistics: Anyone in town interested in the organization's bi-monthly meetings previously had traveled to Tampa. Van Butsel, who lives in northeast Manatee County but works for Redwood City, Calif.-based DPR's Tampa office, is one of those executives.
Van Butsel noticed several others in a similar predicament, so he looked into a Sarasota-Bradenton chapter last year. In that way, BioFlorida's push south from Tampa to make a mark in Sarasota-Bradenton mirrors moves other organizations have made in recent years. The Gulf Coast CEO Forum in Sarasota, for instance, is modeled on the CEO Council of Tampa Bay. And the Tampa Bay Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth started to hold Sarasota-Bradenton meetings in late 2011.
In addition to Tampa, BioFlorida has chapters in Fort Myers-Naples; Miami-Broward; Orlando; Pensacola-Tallahassee; Jacksonville-Gainesville; and Palm Beach-Treasure Coast. The next Sarasota-Bradenton meeting is scheduled for June.
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