The meeting was held at the premises of a drug company Pharming NV (venue and refreshments kindly provided by the Pharming Organisation) in The Auditorium, Pharming NV, Darwinweg, Leiden, The Netherlands.  This was hosted by Nettie Buitelaar, Director of Pharming NV, entitled ‘Nanomedicine & Drug Delivery’.  There were 3 Sessions including 4 industrial presenters.  The meeting was not well attended with around 20 - 25 attendees and was organised from London mainly, finding speakers, etc.  The networking coffee break was a huge success as almost everyone got to meet all other delegates.    Although modestly attended the discussions were excellent (possibly because of its close informal nature). 

The reasons for the disappointing attendance are complex and unclear.  Certainly, this meeting lost its local organiser at a mid-stage and consequently was missing the crucial local stakeholder’s commitment so important in other meetings.  This was organised remotely between London with assistance on industry and venue support from Claire.  However, this was thought to be one of your best locations for Industry/academia engagement, being in the heart of The Netherlands Biotechnical University and industry sectors.  It is also close to/with excellent communications with N. Germany, Belgium, and Scandinavia; all strong in this field.  The impression was that many groups who might have been interested (and who were well canvassed with the Agenda etc,):-

• Had competing events.
• Were unwilling to travel surprisingly short distances (even the 4-5 surrounding major Dutch Universities and numerous biotech industries)
• Were affected in real (financial clamp) or confidence terms by this being almost the Nadir of the Recession.