Return to Moscone

I'm sitting in the main hall at the enormous Moscone conference center in San Francisco awaiting the first plenary at ASHG2012 and remembering the last time I was here.  Back in spring of 2007, I saw Jeff Bezos and several other Web luminaries speak here about the Web2.0 phenomenon - what it was and how they were planning to make money on it.  The buzz throughout that conference was Twitter, though I admit I hadn't really noticed it before then, did not understand it, and was very skeptical that it would amount to anything.  That was the meeting that really inspired me to start writing here.  5 and a half years and 214 posts later its clear that, because of that, it was probably one of the most significant meetings in my professional career.  Who knows?  Perhaps this genetics business will prove even more inspirational.