Opinion: The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference has grown. How can we make it work for everyone?

I have been watching with great interest the reactions to Bruce Booth’s thoughtful observations about this year’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. He noted the number of ways the conference has changed and that its value to his company, Atlas Venture, has greatly diminished. Booth’s thoughts have been echoed on Twitter and elsewhere by a number of attendees.

At the same time, many people have come to the defense of the conference as it has evolved. As someone who helped grow the conference to what it is today, I’d like to offer some historical perspective on its evolution and my thoughts on where it is today, and also ask for your ideas on how to make it better.

In the 1980s, four firms decided that raising capital for the technology and biotechnology sectors was about to become a profitable line