This year's BioEurope exhibition, which took place digitally for the first time due to the corona uncertainties, closed successfully on 29 October 2020. According to organisers' reports, some 3200 representatives from around 1800 companies from 60 countries took part. Contacts were made in over 15,000 virtual meetings and over 70 companies presented themselves with a digital showcase.

The City of Yokohama Europe Representative Office also presented itself digitally in a showcase during the four days of the fair. Admittedly, a digital trade fair is no substitute in the long term for the valuable personal encounters that can be experienced outside of pre-arranged meetings. However, the partnering tool made it easy to arrange virtual meetings in zoom rooms through automated time slot distribution.
Yokohama's Bio-Life-Science Cluster LIP Yokohama is in constant growth. While there were 266 participating companies just a short time ago, there are already 320 companies at the beginning of November. For this reason, efforts are currently being made to establish cluster links in order to strengthen the networks and promote innovation further and more effectively. It was therefore a special pleasure for The City of Yokohama Europe Representative Office to present the LIP network and the close connection with the IoT cluster ITOP Yokohama during the fair and to talk to some representatives of European bio-life science clusters about future possibilities. It is of course of great advantage that Asia's most important bio-life science fair BioJapan is being held in Yokohama and that most of the companies and clusters are therefore already familiar with the city and its advantages, or even already have some connections there.
The City of Yokohama Europe Representative Office will continue to be a strong link for the Bio-Life-Science industry in Europe and Yokohama through its physical proximity to European companies and through communication in German, English and Japanese and is looking forward to interesting future projects and strong synergy effects.

Published: November 2020