The California stem cell agency's international scientific conference last October cost $128,489, coming in nearly $87,000 under budget.
The event drew a fair amount of news media attention (see "Everything" and "Clues" items on this blog) and was praised by editorially by at least one newspaper as one of the wisest expenditures CIRM has made. That said, the agency was a bit balky at releasing the budget figures.
The largest single expenditure was $48,643 for rooms, facilities and equipment at the PARC 55 Renaissance Hotel in San Francisco. Rooms were discounted 30 percent for the 32 persons that the agency picked up expenses for. CIRM paid $45,200 to Mosaic Event Management to run the event. Travel expenses for speakers and others ran an estimated $20,000. Another estimated $9,000 is slated to go to science writer Kelly LaMarco, who is preparing an executive report of the meeting.
The event generated $23,450 in registration and other fees.
The expenses do not include a reception for attendees that was hosted at the St. Francisco Hotel by the California Healthcare Institute, a biomedical industry group.
I do wish that stem cell research would speed things up. I am a young stroke sufferor w/ no left side & need to raise my young daughter soon. I've tried all the conventional therapy w/some help, but I evidently need more. I'm looking for post stroke research using stem cells to reverse damage.
ReplyDelete