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Attendees at a Keystone Symposia conference on TB and AIDS in Tanzania last month. While the organization does most of its conferences in North America, it is trying to expand into other international locations as well.
Keystone Symposia: A little history
Originally created as the UCLA Symposia in 1972 to host retreats around life sciences topics, the first Symposia were held at Squaw Valley. Skiing proved to be a popular diversion from the heady discussions that took place during the Symposia, and other North American mountain resorts (including Keystone) were chosen as sites as the meeting schedule grew. The Symposia's profile gained international prominence in 1984, when work at one of that year's meetings catalyzed the consensus that AIDS was caused by a retrovirus.
In the late 1980s, the Symposia was continuing to grow, but UCLA's interest as host was waning. The Keystone Center stepped in and took in the Symposia as a subsidiary, and Keystone Symposia was born. A few years later, the Symposia branched off on its own as a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit.
The bulk of Keystone Symposia's schedule mirrors that of the ski season, and this year the organization will host 52 different meetings between January and April. Of those, 18 will be in Summit County — 11 in Keystone, four in Breckenridge and three at Copper Mountain. The rest are at other resorts like Park City, Whistler and Banff in British Columbia, Tahoe and Taos. Additionally, Keystone Symposia is expanding its global reach by hosting conferences in Ireland, Japan, Singapore and Tanzania at other times of the year.
The organization's annual operating budget is about $15 million. CEO Jim Aiken says about one third of its funding comes from government grants (like the National Institute of Health); another third comes from corporate gifts while the remaining money comes from fundraising efforts from other sources. One big gift recently came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: A three-year, $2.7 million grant to fund conferences on infections diseases.
For more information about the organization, go to www.keystonesymposia.org.
In the late 1980s, the Symposia was continuing to grow, but UCLA's interest as host was waning. The Keystone Center stepped in and took in the Symposia as a subsidiary, and Keystone Symposia was born. A few years later, the Symposia branched off on its own as a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit.
The bulk of Keystone Symposia's schedule mirrors that of the ski season, and this year the organization will host 52 different meetings between January and April. Of those, 18 will be in Summit County — 11 in Keystone, four in Breckenridge and three at Copper Mountain. The rest are at other resorts like Park City, Whistler and Banff in British Columbia, Tahoe and Taos. Additionally, Keystone Symposia is expanding its global reach by hosting conferences in Ireland, Japan, Singapore and Tanzania at other times of the year.
The organization's annual operating budget is about $15 million. CEO Jim Aiken says about one third of its funding comes from government grants (like the National Institute of Health); another third comes from corporate gifts while the remaining money comes from fundraising efforts from other sources. One big gift recently came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: A three-year, $2.7 million grant to fund conferences on infections diseases.
For more information about the organization, go to www.keystonesymposia.org.
SILVERTHORNE — Tucked away in a suite of offices above a thrift shop in Silverthorne, Keystone Symposia employs about 30 local people, has an annual operating budget of about $15 million and brings some 5,000 people to the county every year. They're not here to ski, necessarily (although plenty do): Keystone Symposia is an internationally recognized organization that works to gather scientists, doctors and other researchers to talk about hot life sciences topics.
With all that activity, Keystone Symposia CEO Jim Aiken acknowledged a lot of Summit County people still have little idea that they exist — much less know what they do. They're trying to change that, with occasional events presented in lay terms and open to the public. Last March, the professor and head of the infectious diseases department at King's College London School of Medicine was in Frisco to discuss how the human body naturally resists HIV infection. The appearance of Nobel laureates (like Dr. Barré-Sinoussi last year) also boosts its profile both locally and internationally.
“We hope to do more things open to the public,” Aiken said. In addition to having visiting lecturers do separate talks, he said they also hope to open some of the more-accessible lectures part of the Symposia to the public.
Ultimately, though, Keystone Symposia is aimed at the global scientific community, and its roster of conference topics for the upcoming season might seem daunting to the average person. There's “Molecular Targets for Control of Vector-Borne Diseases” at Copper next spring, for one; or “Lymphocyte Activation and Gene Expression” in Breckenridge in February. But a session on high-altitude medicine last year was well attended, Aiken said — demonstrating that there can be local interest in Symposia topics.
With all that activity, Keystone Symposia CEO Jim Aiken acknowledged a lot of Summit County people still have little idea that they exist — much less know what they do. They're trying to change that, with occasional events presented in lay terms and open to the public. Last March, the professor and head of the infectious diseases department at King's College London School of Medicine was in Frisco to discuss how the human body naturally resists HIV infection. The appearance of Nobel laureates (like Dr. Barré-Sinoussi last year) also boosts its profile both locally and internationally.
“We hope to do more things open to the public,” Aiken said. In addition to having visiting lecturers do separate talks, he said they also hope to open some of the more-accessible lectures part of the Symposia to the public.
Ultimately, though, Keystone Symposia is aimed at the global scientific community, and its roster of conference topics for the upcoming season might seem daunting to the average person. There's “Molecular Targets for Control of Vector-Borne Diseases” at Copper next spring, for one; or “Lymphocyte Activation and Gene Expression” in Breckenridge in February. But a session on high-altitude medicine last year was well attended, Aiken said — demonstrating that there can be local interest in Symposia topics.
The mission
The Symposia's simple stated mission is “Accelerating life science discovery.” Aiken expands on that by saying the goal is to connect scientists from around the world to present and discuss the latest research.“We want to promote collaboration for discoveries to benefit the world, and we focus mostly on practical applications,” Aiken said.
By that, he simply means they work hard to create conferences that demonstrably advance science by sharing knowledge and promoting networking. Recently, Keystone Symposia surveyed attendees to ask if they'd met someone at a conference they thought they'd collaborate with in the future. Aiken said the results were “remarkable”: About 70 percent said they thought they had met a future collaborator and, nine month later, 60 percent said they had been in collaboration with another conference attendee.
In life sciences, Aiken said, that's critical, since advancing research often depends on knowing what others are doing.
“It saves money, it saves time and it accelerates research goals,” he said.
Another big goal for the Symposia, Aiken said, is to provide opportunities for younger researchers to “rub shoulders” with the leaders in their fields. At a given conference, he said, some 35 to 40 percent of attendees are graduate students or post-doctorate fellows just starting out. Another emphasis is on getting under-represented minorities in the mix as well as attendees from developing countries.
“It really helps their careers,” he said, adding that part of the Symposia's work is to find scholarship money to bring those people to the conferences.
Putting it all together
Looking at the agenda for the coming season is to see something of a road map for where medical technology is going. Sessions on computer-aided drug design, cancer, AIDS, tuberculosis, genetics, aging, stem cells and antibiotics resistance are just a few of the topics on the schedule. Aiken said the Symposia's challenge in planning the conferences is to make educated guesses several years ahead of time as to what will be the hot topic (they're just beginning the cycle for 2012 now). According to Aiken, what's on the Symposia menu emerges from a three-step process:1. Brainstorm with scientists on topics
2. Review the suggestions with the Symposia's Scientific Advisory Board (a group of some 60 individuals from academia, industry and other areas)
3. Invite people to submit proposals on topics
Once decisions are made about what topics to host, the Symposia staff starts assembling a “dream team” the proposal writer suggests. Then, it's a lot of logistics: Where will it be, how many will attend, where will they all stay, etc.
“We have a pretty high acceptance rate once we invite people to present,” Aiken said. “It's above 80 percent.”
What makes Keystone Symposia so unique, Aiken said, and what has bolstered its reputation, is that there's a peer review of the topics and conferences before they take place — not after as is usually the case.
So with all those industry folks involved in the process, how do they keep the Phizers and Bayers of the world from exerting undo influence on the agenda?
“We don't allow companies to form a particular program, nor can they tie any strings to it,” Aiken said. While industry does comprise some 30 percent of the advisory board and also provides funding for the Symposia, Aiken said he feels pretty comfortable there's a clear line they don't step over.
“If there was any suggestion of bias, they'd get dumped on,” he said, referring to the other members of the advisory board. Plus, he said, leaving industry out would make no sense, since a great deal of cutting-edge research is taking place in those corporate labs.
Coming up
Interestingly enough, while the recession has pummeled many sectors of the global economy and nonprofits in particular, Aiken said Keystone Symposia has had a pretty good year.“We've grown every year, even during the recession,” he said, adding that they broke their record for attendance last year with over 14,000 people attending conferences. This year's targets appear to be lining up as well, he said.
On tap in coming years, Aiken said, are more conferences in other countries as well as an expansion of topics. There's a conference planned on bio-energy in Singapore in 2011, for example, and he said more topics related to climate change and related health effects (like changing disease patterns) would make sense.
Linda Hrycaj, Keystone Symposia's senior director of strategic planning who just returned from a conference in Tanzania, said there's a lot of value in meetings in other countries — especially those where the issues are very real.
“It's in your face, it's very energizing to be there,” Hrycaj said. “And it really brings home to researchers what the challenges are in these countries — like a lab that's in a shack, not some fancy facility at MIT.”
