Wonderful Weekend! The Consumer Genomics Show Surprise!

First, a little personal info. I am the proud father of yet another Murphy Daughter! This weekend has been amazing for me. Even better, as we went into the hospital I received an email. Normally the only people emailing at this time are my patients or I am getting results from lab tests I ordered.

So, I felt obligated to look when the iPhone buzzed.

It was an email from John Boyce....... Who is John Boyce? From his website: John recently served as Head of Business Development for Helicos BioSciences, where he was responsible for identifying new market opportunities in which the company was able to develop new applications that gave it a substantial competitive advantage.

John founded Delphi Bio a strategic consulting group for genomic start ups.......

So about a week after I got done trashing the Bubble Con known as the Consumer Genomics Show I received this email from him and Bob Green over at Harvard.

Why did I bash the conference? Well, from the line up of speakers, it looked like a wonk fest attempting to hype Consumer Genomics even more than Oprah could possibly do, BTW did you see the Newsweek article stating that Oprah should stick to talk shows and stay away from Medicine?
Further adding fuel to my cynicism......

But when I read the request it blew me away. They were trying to make Bob's panel, Fair and Balanced.

You see, I think the big problem here, no offense Francis, is that the scientists we have on the cautious optimism side are actually pretty quiet and can get pushed around by the larger than life scientists and business people (GMC? Linda, et.al.) Which on a round table makes for a one sided conversation........

Thus, Enter the Sherpa or as Jeff Gulcher calls me "The Howard Stern of Genomics" But, alas, I had to respectfully decline. Why? Why would the Sherpa shun this opportunity?

Well, I just told you in my first line. Number 2 has just arrived and I am calling in for an ICOB meeting while feeding the baby...... So, I take back a lot of what I said about the Bubble-Con, it appears that there are some people striving to give the show a balanced feel. But my guess is, the pragmatic optimists like myself, will be in small number. Which is exactly what happened with mortgages, financial derivatives, .coms, I could go on and on here.......... So when the VC enter the halls, just remember, I would have if I could have........

The Sherpa Says: A consultancy group in Boston is now offering tickets for the show at 6 USD, and even deeper discount than DNA123........I would have loved to see this show play out.....I guess I will just have to send my crew......

HT-Genomicron for the b-day cake