An article in the business section of today's "New York Times"talks about tighter travel budgets resulting in lower attendance at some big destination conferences. Many meetings have also been canceled not so much due to money, but appearances—especially for companies that got TARP dollars.
But here at the 4th Annual Stem Cell Summit I'm told attendance is up. By about 50 percent, no less, over last year.
All day long privately-held and publicly-traded companies are presenting to around 250 investors.
The meeting may be drawing greater interest because of widespread media reports that President Obama will soon lift the federal funding ban on new embryonic stem cell research. In fact, in anticipation of a Democrat winning last year, stem cell stocks overall were up five percent.