If you plan on having family or friends come visit you in Boston this spring, tell them to avoid the first week of May. Chances are, hotel rooms will be booked up, traffic will be up and restaurants will be packed, at least in the downtown/harborfront area. BIO 2007 is rolling into town May 6 to 9, the world’s biggest biotech conference of the year, which will bring an estimated 20,000 people to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

The Boston Globe wrote last week that even tourist attractions like the New England Aquarium, the Top of the Hub observation area and local museums will be booked for private parties, where biotech executives and investors will schmooze, wine and dine. It definitely shows how big, prosperous, and lavish the biotech industry has gotten, and will likely raise the eyebrows of those who say biotech drugs are too expensive.

Now the Boston Business Journal says that protesters will be out as well. BIO has been a regular target over the last several years for relatively small numbers of people protesting everything from genetically engineered crops to the high cost of drugs. But the article says that organizers and local authorities are worried that Boston will be especially attractive to protesters, since Boston is biotech central and has so many universities strong in the life sciences. They’ve been monitoring the buzz among protesters on websites like biodev.org, rtc.revolt.org/node/12 and bostonmobilization.org.

Whatever will happen, we won’t want to miss out! I will be blogging from the meeting and we’re setting up a group/forum for conference attendees to chat about the days’ events. Colleagues from other parts of Nature will be there too…they’ll be presenting blogs, a podcast, and a roundtable event. Stay tuned.