Boston Mayor Thomas Menino this morning was slated to welcome international and national delegates this morning for the world’s largest biotech and life sciences convention.

The 2012 International BIO Convention is being held today through Thursday at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in the Innovation District. Attendance is projected to be 16,000 and will infuse $26.8 million into the city’s economy during the week, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Menino was scheduled to kick off the convention at an event at Boston’s Fan Pier, and then, with BRA staff, take 50 national and international convention participants on a tour of the city’s Innovation District.

At today’s event, Vertex Pharmaceuticals officials were expected to announce they are planning to open a small-scale manufacturing facility for clinical trials, as well as shipping and receiving. The firm will lease 98,000 square feet of space at 1 Harbor St. in the Marine Industrial Park on the South Boston Waterfront. That 98,000-square-foot facility is controlled by the Economic Development and Industrial Corporation of Boston (EDIC) that was created by the state as a quasi-public agency in 1971.