Event Kickoff

Carrie Thome

Managing Director at NVNG Investment Advisors

Marwa Bassiouni

Director, Partnerships & Operations at BioForward Wisconsin

Healthcare & Life Sciences: The Market View

After several challenging years, healthcare and life sciences capital markets are beginning to shift. Lance Lange of Bairdwill share a market-level view of valuations, IPO and M&A activity, investor appetite, and what companies across therapeutics, medtech, diagnostics, and digital health need to demonstrate to attract capital today.

Lance Lange

Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets at Baird

Investing in Innovation: Insights from Life Sciences VC

Life sciences investors are navigating a changing market for therapeutics, diagnostics, platforms, and emerging technologies. Leading VCs will share what they’re seeing across the market, where they’re finding opportunity, and what it takes for new science and companies to stand out in today’s funding environment.

Christina Jenkins, MD

Co-Founder and General Partner at Convergent Ventures

Paul Weiss

Partner at Venture Investors Health Fund

Speaker Coming Soon!

Working with Epic

Having Epic in Wisconsin’s backyard is a unique advantage, but there can also be a mystique around the company and how best to engage with its growing ecosystem. As Epic expands beyond health systems into areas like life sciences and clinical trials, this session will demystify tools and capabilities including Nebula, Cosmos, Curiosity, Agent Factory, and more, while sharing practical insights for getting Epic’s attention, navigating the right entry points, and working effectively with the company.

Sulabh Agarwal

CEO of KeyCare

Brian Lindstrom

Partner at HealthX Ventures

Erik Phelps

EVP, Chief Administrative & Legal Officer at Tempus AI

Speaker Coming Soon!

Investing in Innovation: Insights from Digital Health VC

Digital health continues to evolve as AI, changing care models, and new approaches to healthcare delivery reshape the sector. Leading VCs will discuss where they’re seeing meaningful opportunity, what has changed about how they evaluate digital health companies, and which technologies and business models are attracting attention—and capital—today.

Daniel Fleming

Managing Partner at RC Capital

E.J. Reedy

Director of Platform at PACE Healthcare Capital

Andrew Wegrzyn

Principal at SixThirty Ventures

China & the Future of Biotech Innovation

“China & the Future of Biotech Innovation
Half the molecules in Western pipelines this year were licensed from China and most allocators still treat it as a footnote.
The story isn’t cheap labor, it’s asset density per dollar — more shots on goal, faster, at a fraction of the cost structure. The discovery productivity gap is now large enough to reprice the entire early-stage value chain. Averin’s Eric Berry will present the case then engage in a discussion to address the topic. When you can in-license a de-risked asset for less than it costs to run your own Phase 1, the whole “”build vs. buy”” math in pharma inverts. The next decade of licensing deals doesn’t just add pipeline. It reprices where discovery value is created.”

Eric Berry

Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Averin Capital

Speaker Coming Soon!

From the Source — Emerging Innovations from Wisconsin Research Institutions

Wisconsin’s leading research institutions are advancing discoveries with the potential to shape the future of healthcare and life sciences. In a series of rapid-fire talks, leaders from UW–Madison, Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, and Versiti will spotlight emerging research, technologies, and opportunities moving from the lab toward real-world impact.

Kevin Boggs, MBA, PhD, RTTP

Director, Office of Technology Development at Medical College of Wisconsin

Kalpa Vithalani, PhD

Executive Director of Technology Transfer at Marquette University

Matthew Anderson, MD, PhD

EVP and Chief Medical Officer at Versiti

Carrie Thome

Managing Director at NVNG Investment Advisors

Beyond the Wet Lab: How AI Is Rewriting Early-Stage Drug Discovery

“The old playbook in biotech is changing. Today, artificial intelligence, generative molecular design, and in-silico validation allow lean teams to pinpoint novel targets on a fraction of traditional budgets. By moving early-stage failure from the wet lab bench to the algorithm, biotechs are fundamentally altering the cost of scientific validation—even as they navigate the critical limits of AI, such as data scarcity and the ultimate necessity of physical biological testing. This shift has the potential to rewrite life science venture dynamics.

Join leading founders and investors to explore how AI-driven drug discovery is compressing timelines and reshaping biotech venture structures, while separating the computational hype from biological reality.”

Faraz Choudhury, PhD

CEO of Immuto Scientific

Speaker Coming Soon!

Decoding Health System Innovation: From Idea to Successful Adoption

Health systems take very different approaches to evaluating and adopting new technologies. Leaders from academic, regional, and rural health systems will share how they prioritize innovation, evaluate early-stage companies, structure pilots, and navigate internal hurdles—from finding the right champion to IT, security, procurement, and clinical review.

Speakers Coming Soon!

Cutting Costs, Not Care: Practical Tech and Operations for Affordable Health

This session will explore practical, high-impact strategies driving down healthcare costs right now. Experts will share real-world examples of technology, policy shifts, and care delivery models that make medical services cheaper and more accessible without hurting the quality of patient care. Key Topics include smart technology – how artificial intelligence and virtual care cut hospital waste; fair pricing – clear cost lists and payment models based on patient health results and finally; better operations – ways to stop extra tests and cut office paperwork.

Andrew Bouldin

Managing Partner at FCA Venture Partners

Eric Horler

President and CEO of AIQ Solutions

Speaker Coming Soon!

Startup Showcase

Celebrate bold ideas and big breakthroughs! The 11th Annual Startup Showcase spotlights Wisconsin’s most promising start-up biohealth companies as they share how they’re transforming the industry and driving our thriving ecosystem forward. From medical devices and diagnostics to digital health, therapeutics, and advanced manufacturing — discover the next wave of innovation and meet the visionaries shaping the future of biohealth in Wisconsin.