2015 marks the 30th anniversary for Emory OTT and part of that celebration includes a series of blog posts highlighting important “firsts” for the office. This month we highlight the Emory Breakfast Club.
In June of 2006, the first Breakfast Club meeting was held. “The idea was to find a better way to engage the business community with regards to licensing opportunities we had in the office. We created this event so that we could find a way to more regularly bring the business community together and pitch technologies to them” says Todd Sherer, Executive Director. The meeting is held twice a year and as its name implies first thing in the morning over breakfast.
Sherer often describes the event as “a dating service for technologies.” How are the technologies picked: “We sit down as a group and ask ourselves ‘What technologies do we have that have a compelling story behind them?’”, adds Sherer. Three technologies were presented at the inaugural meeting:
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Therapeutic HIF-1 pathway inhibitors for use in cancer and macular degeneration
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ACE Inhibitors for use in cancer and infections
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Progesterone for use in traumatic brain injury
Since its inception the event has been a wonderful success and become a signature event for the office. Over time the business and venture capital community view this as a great opportunity to network with like-minded people in the Atlanta community. It’s not just a great way to hear about technology but also about the great things happening at Emory.
To find out more about the Emory Breakfast Club and technologies presented our website here.
For additional information read our previous blog piece on the Breakfast Club here or visit Technology Transfer Tactics article ”‘Breakfast Club’ puts Emory technologies before VCs, entrepreneurs,” August 2011, found here: http://bit.ly/1wt1Zzc.