2009 Los Angeles, USA Annual Meeting
The meeting was held in Pasadena, a suburb of Los Angeles, at the beautiful Langham Huntington Hotel. There were a total of 316 attendees from 34 different countries. The prevailing world financial difficulties reduced the number in attendance to some degree.
With the leadership of John Kestle, Chairman of the Scientific Committee, an excellent program covering the spectrum of pediatric neurosurgery was presented. The format provided for lively discussions between presenters and audience. Invited outside speakers focused on topics such as new developments in MRI as well as nano and space technologies likely to influence the future of pediatric neurosurgery.
The welcoming reception was held outside the hotel on the lawn, with mariachi music accompanied by Mexican cuisine. The weather was perfect, as expected in Southern California at this time of year, with the exception of Tuesday afternoon. No rain had fallen for over six months, but would on that afternoon as heavy rains fell just as the tennis and golf matches were under way. As the tennis courts were at the hotel, the tennis players were easily able to keep dry. Not so fortunate were the golfers, though. Jokes regarding golfers’ dedication to their sport are legend and this day was no exception, as they all played in the rain and had many stories to tell thereafter.
At the gala dinner the current president Tai-Tong Wong presented the poncho to Saffet Mutleur, the incoming president. The poncho, the symbol of the presidency, was established by Anthony Raimondi during the 1979 annual meeting held in Chicago in remembrance of Raul Carrea, the serving president of the ISPN who died shortly before the meeting began. All of the names of the past presidents were embroidered on that poncho with a new name being added each year thereafter. As there was no more space on the original poncho for additional names, in 2002 Shizou Oi presented the ISPN with a second poncho to enable the tradition to continue. At the 2009 meeting in Los Angeles, the original poncho was given to Graciela Zucaro for safe keeping and subsequently put on display in Buenos Aires, Raul Carrea’s home town.
The success of the meeting was due to the generous support of all involved.
Gordon McComb
Meeting Chairman
ISPN 2009 of Los Angeles.
