In January 1983 the San Francisco investment banking firm Hambrecht & Quist decided to organize a conference to bring emerging companies in front of investors.

“The first conference had twenty companies and about 100 attendees with presentations running in two rooms,” recalls David MacCallum, the head of Healthcare Banking at H&Q at the time and the event’s founder. “People thought we were crazy to do the conference then.”

By 1987 it had grown to 150 companies and 1000 attendees. Today, the event is the largest healthcare gathering anywhere, attracting well over 7,000 participants. It has truly become an industry event, with virtually every US investment bank setting up satellite operations near San Francisco’s Union Square area while JP Morgan showcases almost 300 public companies and about 70 venture-backed private organizations nearby.

When OneMedPlace sought to create a networking and exchange meeting for its member companies, San Francisco during that week seemed like a logical choice.

OneMedPlace’s annual meeting will be focused on presentations by small and emerging companies as well as panels discussing financing strategies for emerging companies. OneMedPlace is presenting young companies, some with disruptive technologies, and small public companies that typically don’t get much coverage from Wall Street.

We hope that our annual meeting can make a contribution to the industry by creating a forum for emerging companies to connect with one another, with experts and with those interested in getting involved in their success. The meeting will provide an opportunity for investors to learn about promising emerging companies for which little information is usually available.

We expect that it can attract those focused on emerging and smaller size companies to create an event that can bring people to San Francisco that would be able to get an invite to the JP Morgan event.