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During the week of January 22-24, 2019 we had the honor to attend the co-located Phacilitate Leaders World and World Stem Cell Summit 2019 conferences in Miami, Florida. There, we had the opportunity to attend many of the conference events, talks, and speaker series, and connect with new and familiar cell and gene therapy industry professionals.

On Tuesday, January 22, the opening night of the conference, Tom Whitehead joined Dr. Bruce Levine, Penn Medicine, and Dr. Anthony Davies, Dark Horse Consulting, in a fireside chat to kick off the pre-conference Super Plenary event. In a discussion led by Davies, Tom had the opportunity to inspire those in attendance with his story and share the Emily Whitehead Foundation's mission to support further innovative pediatric cancer immunotherapy research.

The evening of Thursday, January 24, however, was the week's greatest highlight when we had the honor to host a unique yacht party fundraiser in partnership with Phacilitate. With the combined proceeds collected through ticket sales and an on-board silent auction and casino play, the event raised a total $17,350 for the Emily Whitehead Foundation!

We had a lot of fun and Emily especially enjoyed the top deck entertainment and light-up glow sticks. This was the first year that the Phacilitate yacht party, which had existed in prior years as an exclusive conference networking event, was held in partnership with a charitable organization — and we are so blessed and thankful to have been invited to participate as the beneficiary.

Thank you Phacilitate Leaders World and World Stem Cell Summit for an incredible, inspiring week — with special thanks to all who joined us on the yacht, as well as anyone we had the pleasure to connect with throughout the conference.

A huge thank you also to the handful of volunteers who joined us, to Joe and Jamie Bartolo for handling the silent auction, and to the Phacilitate team for everything they did to make this fundraiser happen and be the great success that it was.

We look forward to the opportunity for further partnerships with Phacilitate and hope to return next year to experience and participate in Advanced Therapies Week 2020!