With a great success of attendance, the Hesperia Tower Hotel hosted on November 19, 2009 the first Bioàgora Conference organized by Biopol. Intended as a meeting point for investors, entrepreneurs and researchers, Bioàgora was opened at 10am by the Mayor of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Núria Marín, who stressed the importance of Biopol as a strategic project that will contribute to position the city incorporating it to the knowledge and innovation society as a generator of wealth, work and increasingly competitive economy.

After the welcome by the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Biopol Consortium, Dr. Miquel Gomez and the presentation of the Catalan Bioregion by Dr. Manel Balcells, member of the Executive Committee of Biopol and president of the Biocat Executive Committee, followed the presentations by experts in various fields of biotechnology and business: an analysis of the biotechnology industry in Catalonia, venture capital as an instrument for the consolidation of firms and different tools and examples of biotechnology clusters.

After lunch followed a panel discussion moderated by the director of Biopol, Dr. Ramon Lopez, and attended by the scientific director of the Catalan Institute of Oncology, Dr. Gabriel Capellà, two venture capitalists and a young biotech entrepreneur, where the profitability of inventiveness was discussed.

The Conference was closed by Ramon Lopez, who welcomed the attendance of all participants and briefly summarized the main points of the Conference: the dynamism of the biotechnology sector and the ability to attract talent but also the need for more investment and the importance to promote the culture of risk and to build trust between the scientific and the investment and business world.