2015 Izmir, Turkey Annual Meeting

It was a great honour and pleasure to host the 43rd Annual Meeting of the ISPN in Izmir, Turkey, between October 3-8, 2015. Even it was an unfortunate occasion that caused me to become the chair of an ISPN Annual Meeting, after 15 years from the Istanbul 2000 Annual Meeting, it was a wonderful and exciting experience for me to host ISPN in my hometown Izmir this time.

The Annual Meeting has been completed with 415 participants from 45 countries all over the world.

On the scientific aspect of the Meeting, there was 353 abstracts submitted from 41 countries. While having 351 of them accepted as either platform presentations, or flash presentations, or e-posters, we had 182 platform/flash presentations actually presented during the Annual Meeting scientific program, and 139 e-posters was available for viewing throughout the entire Annual Meeting.

In addition to the platform and flash presentation sessions, we also had;

–  5 special symposia on “posterior fossa tumours”, “lasers in neurosurgery”, “craniovertebral junction 3D”, “education” and “echinococcosis”,

–  2 special lectures given by Aysegul Selcuki Uysal (about the 8.500 year history of Izmir) and James Goodrich,

–  1 panel discussion on “global status of fetal surgery for myelomeningocele”

–  1 wrap up session with the contribution of our two invited speakers Frank Saran and Stefan Rutkowski

–  2 luncheon symposia organized by two important supporters of ISPN Annual Meetings

–  nursing symposium organized parallelly to the scientific program

Of course, this success of the scientific program is a result of the hard and excellent work of the Scientific Program Committee chaired by Graham Fieggen from South Africa, and I would like to express my gratitude for his and all committee members’ invaluable contribution for holding an outstanding scientific program in Izmir.

There was also a pre-congress course “controversies in pediatric neurosurgical practice” organized by the local organizing committee of the Annual Meeting with the attendance of 92 participants, and I also would like to thank to Mehmet Selcuki, the director of the pre-congress course for his hard work on organizing this course.

Meeting Destination and Venue

43rd Annual Meeting of ISPN has been held in Izmir, “Smyrna” with the ancient name, the 8.500 years old city of Homeros, the homeland of antique era philosophers such as Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander, etc. and Galenus who is considered as the father of medicine, the home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World…

The congress venue was “Grand Ephesus Convention Centre” within the Swissotel Buyuk Efes premises, located at the heart of beautiful Izmir, the pearl of Aegean.

Social Program

As the social program of the Annual Meeting, we had the Presidential Dinner, Welcome Reception, Free Afternoon, and Gala Dinner as usual.

The Presidential Dinner has been held at a local wineyard (Isa Bey Wineyards) on Saturday, October 3rd, with the attendance of 60 invitees.

“Networking on the Peak”

On the following day, Sunday, October 4th, we had the Welcome Reception in Zirve (Peak) Hall located on the 32nd floor of Hilton Izmir Hotel with the incredible sunset scene of Izmir Bay. As it was a great reunion and networking opportunity for ISPN participants who come together once a year, we haven’t had the opening performence of the Annual Meeting during the Welcome Reception.

Instead we included the opening performance into the opening ceremony which has been held in the morning of Monday, October 5th. A children folklore group of Izmir Ministry of Education has performed a traditional show from Anatolia.

Options for Free Afternoon

As always happens in ISPN Annual Meetings, the afternoon of Tuesday, October 6th was a free afternoon, and there was a variety of alternatives (an exclusive city tour, golf playing in Kusadasi, tennis tournament at Swissotel’s courts) for participants to rest a bit, and enjoy Izmir and surroundings in this afternoon.

In the evening of this afternoon, we created an optional special night for the ones who wanted to join a group dinner with an Aegean touch, and enjoyed the “Acoustic Aegean Night” with the ones who joined us.

Farewell to ISPN 2015 and Izmir

The farewell of the Annual Meeting was the Gala Dinner that has been held on Wednesday, October 7th. As usual, the Poncho Ceremony has been a part of this night, and the presidency of ISPN and the poncho as the symbol of the presidency have been handed over to Graciela Zuccaro by Chandrashekhar Deopujari.

The night continued with the performence of a wonderful musical band, and the participants enjoyed the fun and dance throughout all night.

Industry Support

We had 16 sponsoring and exhibition companies who supported the Annual Meeting. As it would have not been possible for us to organize such a successful Annual Meeting without the support of our industry partners, we are thankful to those partners for their invaluable support to ISPN and the Annual Meeting.

Closing

Closing of the Annual Meeting and the handover of the ISPN flags to the Chair of the 44th Annual Meeting of ISPN to be held in Kobe, Japan in October 2016 has been held as the last session of the meeting program in the afternoon of Thursday, October 8th.

Thank you

I would like to take this opportunity to thank to all participants that came to Izmir from all over the world, to all presenters who contributed the scientific program with their valuable lectures and presentations, and to all attendees of the social events who joined us celebrating our annual meeting, and enjoying Izmir all together.

In particular, I also would like to thank to the members of local organizing committee, my pediatric neurosurgical colleagues and friends here in Turkey, who have supported me throughout the way from the beginning, to Graham Fieggen and all scientific committee members, and of course to the Executive Board of ISPN.

Finally, I would like to end up by commemorating Yusuf Ersahin, my dear friend and colleague who was supposed to chair this Annual Meeting, unless he had passed away last year. We will always remember him within the ISPN family.

Looking forward to seeing you all again in future ISPN Annual Meetings!

Saffet Mutluer

Chair of the 43rd Annual Meeting of ISPN

Izmir, Turkey, October 3-8, 2015

Photo Gallery     http://www.ispn2015.org/ispn-congress-gallery/