Asco

So, I'm back at the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago for the second time this month. We were here for ASCO--the cancer conference--at the beginning of June. But this trip is much different. Unlike ASCO, the American Diabetes Association which is holding its annual meeting here is letting us broadcast from inside the building! ASCO would not, has not and seems like never will let us work within the huge halls. A spokesman claims we'd cause a "media circus" and that the financial media threaten to compromise the "scientific integrity" of ASCO.

ADA felt that way until last year. I was covering the ADA meeting for the first time in 2006 in Washington, DC and it refused to let us set up indoors. Instead, ADA made us go outside, literally in a gravel and dirt-covered parking lot across the street. Well, wouldn't you know it poured that day. Buckets. Cats and dogs. A puddle formed under our canopy when it was time to interview the then-Amylin Pharmaceuticals CEO--and always impeccably dressed--Ginger Graham. There she was in her $600 Ferragamos (actually I don't know what brand they were or how much they cost--they just looked expensive) soaking in muddy rainwater. That's all it took. After the interview Graham marched across the street and cracked some heads.