The Biotechnology Industry Organization's BIO 2004 biotechnology conference in San Francisco heightened recognition of San Diego's biotech cluster. No longer just a rising star, the San Diego-area biotech industry is firmly ranked in the top tier along with Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Biotechnology -- the industry that uses biology to make products to fight diseases and produce foods -- has become a major focus of economic development across the nation. Many states now view biotechnology, with its educated, well-paid work force, as an essential part of a successful economy.

Biocom, the San Diego-based biotechnology trade group, co-sponsored the conference, along with BIO, the national biotech trade group, and BayBio, the trade group for the San Francisco Bay Area. That was the official billing: In reality, Biocom carried the brunt of the work. That is unusual for a local organization based more than 400 miles away from the event.

The ultimate vote of confidence in San Diego's organizational ability: The conference will return to San Diego in 2008.

Global turnout

Nearly 17,000 people attended the convention -- the most in its history, according to BIO. People came from 59 foreign countries as well as from 49 states, which made it the most globally representative in biotech history. Countries sending delegates for the first time included Algeria, Armenia, the Ivory Coast, Slovenia and Yemen.

San Diego County's turnout was substantial, based on the number of companies listed as participating. (Neither Biocom nor BIO had an official count of the number of attendees from San Diego County).

BIO's list of local exhibitors included CancerVax Corp., E.B.D. Group Inc., GenVault Corp., Invitrogen Corp. and Isis Pharmaceuticals of Carlsbad. Fourteen San Diego companies exhibited, and the attendees included a number of allied groups such as law firms, financial companies and the likes of Science Applications International Corp., San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp., San Diego Workforce Partnership and UC San Diego.

Nearly all of the biggest pharmaceutical companies had exhibits, including Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, which both have major research facilities in La Jolla.

Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development L.L.C., which does biotech research for its parent company, is building a new San Diego campus that can hold more than double its current local staff of 300.

Making news

Invitrogen Corp. chose the convention to announce what it called a major advance in biotech research: a new line of "protein chips" that quickly identifies large numbers of protein sequences. The chips will be used for various research projects and to speed up discovery of potential new protein-based drugs, which are biotech's biggest sellers.

This is a step beyond "gene chips," which perform a similar function in identifying genes, which are the units of heredity that make proteins. The first protein chip contains yeast proteins and is intended for general research. Starting in the fall, chips with human proteins will be sold. These will be more relevant to developing drugs for human diseases.

And while individual companies were wheeling and dealing and boasting of progress, representatives of Biocom and the British government solidified plans to establish formal ties between San Diego and British biotech development groups.

Other conference highlights include:

• Biotech will be used to fight neglected diseases through a nonprofit group, BIO Ventures for Global Health, funded by a $1 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its Web site is www.bvgh.org.

• San Diego was ranked as the country's top biotech cluster, according to a report by the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica-based think tank.

• Anti-biotech groups succeeded in staging highly visible protests at the convention, criticizing attempts to patent genes and make genetically modified foods. But they failed in an attempt to shut the convention down Tuesday.

Chance meetings

Beyond statistics and official announcements, there are the irreplaceable elements of convenience and serendipity when the global leadership of any industry is gathered in one place. It destroys distance. Only at such a global convention could Singapore and Finland be neighbors, with the Netherlands just a short walk away. Because this geographical and temporal convergence lasts just a short time, people try to do as much as possible and keep sleeping to a minimum.

The various sessions provided more than enough action to keep the conferencegoers busy. From 9:30 to 10:45 a.m., attendees could choose from 17 sessions spanning biotech science and business. They included "Drug Development for Minority Populations," "Technical Improvements in Cellulosic Biomass Conversion" and "Unconventional Sources of Capital: Raising Cause-Related Funds."

But some of the best insights and contacts are gained by unstructured wandering, said David Palella, president of Carmel Valley-based Bioscience Ventures Inc., a biotech consulting firm. (Palella was interviewed at the California pavilion as the result of just such a chance encounter.)

"Brownian motion" is Palella's succinct description of his approach, using the scientist's term for the random movement of very small particles in water.

In a dinner party anecdote, a British businessman related how he made contact with a German government official he had been trying to reach, just by walking over to the German pavilion and reading the name tag. He had not known this official would be at the conference.

Style and substance

It's a tradition at conventions to attempt to impress passers-by by sponsoring elaborate exhibits or giving away knickknacks. That is fine for a carnival, but will hard-headed business investors and research scientists automatically flock like homing pigeons to the states and regions with the most dazzling exhibits and gimmicks?

You better believe it.

Giveaways and gimmicks were notably effective in drawing the attention of conventiongoers supposedly intent on business. The adjacent Maryland pavilion grabbed the attention of passers-by with a talking, moving, remote-controlled robot. People lined up to get an ice cream bar from another exhibitor.

If showy sales pitches were the deciding factor, many of California's biotech companies and research institutes would now be busy relocating to Canada, France, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa and Maryland. All of these had far more elaborate pavilions than California's modest effort, which one attendee was overheard describing as "anemic."

(Unlike many other states, California did not pay for its own pavilion, leaving local groups such as Biocom to pick up the slack.)

San Diego County-based groups took the bulk of space at the modest pavilion. Carlsbad's Invitrogen Corp. built an exhibit as elaborate as that of Amgen, the Thousand Oaks company that has a market value 20 times as great as Invitrogen's.

And, despite its alleged anemia, the California pavilion attracted a crush of visitors Tuesday evening to its reception, featuring California wines.

Beyond the dazzle

Salesmanship and dazzle get a foot in the door. But those same attendees who grab the freebies aren't going to be persuaded to do that deal without substance. San Diego provided that substance.

Biocom shouldered a major role in organizing the convention, providing people and raising $1 million. The group even canceled its state biotech conference, CalBioSummit, to make the international conference a success. The group's commitment gained grateful praise from Carl Feldbaum, BIO's retiring president.

Gregory T. Lucier, Invitrogen's energetic president and chief executive, shared the stage with executives from IBM and Genentech, the world's first biotech company, in an "industry visionaries" panel discussion.

There was solid evidence of San Diego's ability to nurture biotech companies beyond the convention.

Those stopping by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp.'s booth were shown the Milken Institute study ranking San Diego as the nation's top biotech cluster. Also given out: a reprint of a recent and very flattering in-depth look at San Diego's biotech and high-tech clusters by the prestigious scientific journal Nature.

An article in the reprint described San Diego's business community as collegial and mutually supportive of one another, compared with the more mutually competitive San Francisco Bay Area companies.

The report and reprint may not grab the eye like a glowing green drink glass, but they will undoubtedly provoke much more thought as scientists and investors look for opportunities.

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com.