Sarah May, the IBMS Deputy Chief Executive, looks back on another successful Congress and picks out some of her highlights.
Wow, didn’t we have a ball! After almost two years of preparation and build-up, Congress has just ended and my months of worry were proved to be unfounded. More people, more talks, lectures and more exhibitors; speaking personally, Congress was everything I hoped it would be and more. If you weren’t able to come, make sure you don’t miss out in 2021.
I know I have written and talked extensively about the Congress lecture programme, but the thing that really gave Congress its “buzz” was the exhibition; there is nothing like it in any other pathology or life science event. The effort our industry partners put in to Congress is remarkable and it is what makes Congress different; it was an integral part of the whole event. I would like to thank our Company Members and other exhibitors who worked so hard with us to make Congress such a success; in particular I would like to thank Mark Reed of ProLab, who is the Chairman of our Company Members and a vital link between the Institute and our industry colleagues. Congress would not be the success that it is without the input of our industry partners.
The thing that really gave Congress its “buzz” was the exhibition; there is nothing like it in any other pathology or life science event
For the past few Congresses we have been running seminars in the Hall 4 exhibition, but this was the first year we decided to run a full programme to parallel that of the main lecture programme. I know it is challenging putting seminars in an exhibition hall, but I felt the strength of the programme and the presenters more than compensated for “acoustic challenges”. At this point I would like to thank Jocelyn Pryce and Chris Ward, who talked themselves hoarse with their education and training presentations and their almost permanent availability to answer questions from delegates about our examinations. I suspect they will need the next two years to recover!
What delegates probably didn’t notice was that we used Congress as an opportunity to record a number of podcasts to extend learning opportunities to our members after Congress has ended. More information about these will appear in The Biomedical Scientist, but we have captured some valuable interviews with key lecturers that will shortly be available to view via our website.
Finally, the best bits for me were the brilliant, Prof Sophie Scott who delivered the Opening Plenary presentation on The Science of Laughter (I’ll know exactly what is going on in my head next time I’m having a jolly good laugh) and the Closing Plenary speaker, Dr James Grieve, who managed to convey more bristling enthusiasm about a post-mortem than I had ever thought was possible. Suggestions for Congress 2021 topics to me on a postcard, please.
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