The ISPN Executive has been busy behind the scenes, dealing with the extraordinary circumstances of 2020 and its implications for our activities and the practice of paediatric neurosurgery worldwide. Please attend our Business Meeting of the ISPN scheduled for Sunday, November 8. This is an important event in our calendar because it ensures that our members not only are aware of the ongoing activities of the ISPN as an organization, but have an opportunity to influence these.
The ISPN Executive has been meeting online regularly since our meeting in Birmingham, UK. Key areas we have been working on are the following:
The postponement of the 2020 meeting in Singapore and future meetings
We discussed in depth the many ways to best manage the impact of COVID-19 on our physical meeting, finally making the decision to postpone the Singapore meeting to 2021. Of course, this presented several potential logistic, contractual, and financial challenges, not only for Singapore but also for the following meetings, which have all been pushed back by one year. However, we have found workable solutions for all the main obstacles.
Abstracts submitted for the 2020 meeting will be held over for the 2021 meeting based on consensus opinion of the authors. New abstracts will also be considered and we will inform you about the opening dates for those.
Some details of our future meetings still await confirmation, as we are sure you can appreciate given the fluidity of the current situation and the knock-on effects not only of our postponement, but those of several other unrelated meetings. We have a clear way forward though – these are the key outcomes:
ISPN 2021 will be held in Singapore in the second or third week of November. While the final dates are being negotiated with the venue, we aim to hold this partly conjoined with the IFNE meeting. This will be an exciting venture to join with our endoscopy colleagues, many of whom are ISPN members and leaders.
ISPN 2022 will be held in Vina del Mar, Chile, 6-10 November 2022.
ISPN 2023 will be held in Toronto, Canada 8-12 October 2023. This meeting will retain its status as the 50th Annual Meeting of our organization.
ISPN 2024 will be held in Lyon, France, 27-31 October 2024.
ISPN 2025 will be held in Cairo, Egypt. The dates for this meeting are to be confirmed.
Activities of the Education Committee
The Education Committee is a key working group of the ISPN throughout the year, running courses all over the world, often in regions where paediatric neurosurgery services are in greatest need of support. Of course, COVID-19 has rendered all of these activities impossible this year. Fortunately for all of us, the Committee has pivoted to exceptionally well-run and useful online activities. The Clash of the Titans debates have been a great success.
The ISPN Executive
At our online meeting we discussed at length whether the executive should be continued as it is or should hold an election process for a new 2020-2021 board. Having considered all the pros and cons the executive voted to retain its current composition for a second year to enable stability and to follow standard processes as required by the bylaws at the physical meeting in Singapore in 2021. Francisco Salomão has agreed to continue as President for a second year, and Rick Boop remains the President-elect.
Business Meeting of the ISPN
This is scheduled for the last day of the Virtual Meeting of the ISPN (November 8). Exact times and details of the platform will be communicated in due time. If you are an ISPN member, please attend this meeting because your input is essential. If you are not a member, please contact Shlomi Constantini for details of how to become one.
