Northeast Ohio is one of many areas jockeying for position in the bioscience war. And it has some pretty sophisticated players doing some very interesting things.

Coming up soon is a new networking event that looks unique. The non-profit group NEOBio is holding its first Special Interest Group for the Neurological Area (Neurology, Neurosurgery, Neuroscience, and Sleep) and they’re “prototyping the format” for other SIGs. Here’s how they’re working it:

5:00-5:30 PM Registration and Networking

5:30-6:00 PM Welcome and 30 second introductions of each of the participants

6:00-6:45 PM Researchers bring posters to tape to the wall. Company and capital participants will view research posters.

6:45-7:30 PM Companies bring posters to tape to the wall. Researchers and capital participants will view company posters.

7:30-8:00 PM Networking

Instead of a boring trade show where people stand around and hope you eventually drift by their booth, here we’ve got a dynamic constantly moving event where everyone is fully engaged in taking in new information throughout the evening. This format shows tremendous respect for the participants’ accomplishments as well as for their time and energy.

Great way to get players in the same specialty to know one another. It’ll be interesting to see how it works and if any tweaking takes place.