A shake-out in the competition to create biotech clusters has been long overdue. Floor traffic at BIO appeared less congested than some previous years, and a number of investment locations that once had pavilions in the exhibitional hall have either disappeared or downgraded to considerably more modest stands. (The state of New York and Ohio notable among the latter.) Yet, whether this suggests a shifting of priorities to other sectors or just temporary marketing budget reductions remains to be seen. And political leaders still turned out in force this year to fly the flag for their biotech clusters. fDi editor Courtney Fingar spoke to a few of them.