An observer at a recent GI conference notes the pharma influence:

The Shire Pharmaceuticals’ booth offered weary physicians a park-like atmosphere complete with gently rolling grassy hills, stone paths, park benches, and free hot dogs. The Abbott booth contained a mini-movie theater. On every aisle, companies provided free slushies, gourmet espressos, coffee, tea, sweets, hot dogs, and fresh pretzels. They also offered beach towels, blankets, movies, free internet access, and, the most popular gift of all, a comfortable place to sit and chat with colleagues or the model-like sales representatives who prowled the convention floor.

Sounds similar to my visit to Pri-Med last year.

The flip side is that without pharma sponsorship, these conferences would be prohibitively expensive for physicians to attend.