From the CEO’s desk: all coming conferences

Photo: WONCA conferences - a chance to meet old and new friends and have some fun - this photo from Dubrovnik in 2015.

This month I want to return to the theme of WONCA conferences and events. These are important landmarks in our calendar, as they afford a great opportunity to meet up with old friends, to make some new friends, and to share areas of interest with colleagues from all around the world.

WONCA World conference 2018 Seoul
Of course this is a world conference year, and the website continues to provide regular updates on registration, keynote speakers and details of abstract submission for this key event.

>More on Seoul 2018 world conference.

Photos: More conference history: in 2013 in Prague, Garth Manning caught at his first world conference as CEO, with WONCA Manager Nongluck Suwisith and then president- elect Amanda Howe. And below at the same event, Shabir Moosa from South Africa (the current WONCA Africa region president-elect) and Ilkka Kunnamo from Finland who is now the chair of the Working Party on eHealth.

But as well as the world conference in Seoul in October, there are several regional events of note.

WONCA EMR conference in Kuwait - 1st to 3rd March – sadly this event will be over by the time you read this article, but both Amanda Howe and I will be attending, and will report back in a future WONCA News.

WONCA Iberoamericana-CIMF. Our colleagues in Latin America are hosting not one but two events in mid-March in the city of Cali, Colombia. On 13th and 14th March they will host the VII Cumbre (Summit) of family and community medicine, and then from 15th to 17th March they will hold the Andean sub-regional conference. The Iberoamerican Family Medicine Summits are important events, as they provide political and technical opportunities for reflection on primary health care and its role in health systems. The event includes the formation of discussion groups, encouraging the exchange of ideas between governments, professional organizations and training institutions. Recommendations generated from these summits helps to inform and influence the development and improvement of Primary Care and Family Medicine in the region.  More here.

WONCA Rural Health conference 26th to 29th April – this event is planned for Delhi, and will be the first WONCA Rural event in the Indian sub-continent. The organizers have been working extremely hard to ensure a large attendance at a very varied event, and it’s bound to be a further milestone in WONCA Rural’s progress. More details of this event can be found here.

WONCA Europe conference, 24th to 27th May – the WONCA Europe conference, this year in Krakow, Poland, is always one of the major events in our diary. It’s the biggest regional event by some margin, and always attracts a great crowd with some really excellent workshops and seminars and keynotes. An added bonus this year is the venue – Krakow is a very beautiful city, with many local attractions, and in late May the weather should be wonderful. More details here.

Photo : more conference fun, this time in Dhaka 2015

Future dates for your diary
Plans are already advanced for many events in 2019 and beyond so here are a few dates for your 2019 diary.

• 14th to 17th May – WONCA APR conference in Kyoto, Japan
• 26th to 29th June – WONCA Europe conference in Bratislava, Slovak Republic.

Finally, I will be travelling again to Korea in mid-March for a further Conference Planning Committee meeting, and will report back in WONCA News next month.

All WONCA conferences
Until next month.

Dr Garth Manning
Chief Executive Officer

PS if you enjoyed the historical photos check out the 2015 conference photo collection here