Working Groups' involvement in ESC Annual Congress Scientific Programme
The ESC Congress 2007 (Vienna, AT) was a very successful event with a total of 29,519 attendees.
Working Groups are traditionally and de facto one of the pillars of the European Society of Cardiology, being responsible for the scientific activities of the Society and for most of the proposals for the pre-arranged section of the Congress Programme.
This year 331 sessions were presented, with 206 pre-arranged sessions organised by Working Groups, 125 oral abstract sessions, 5 Young Investigator Award sessions, as well as 58 satellites, 11 workshops and 3000 posters, e-slides and "how-to" sessions.
Promoting Working Group activities
As you might have noticed, the ESC has decided to dedicate a more intense effort than in the past to promote ESC Working Groups activities, visibility and impact.
This was highly reflected during the ESC Congress in Vienna:
- New Working Group flyers have been created by the ESC Office for Working Groups (see "DID YOU KNOW?" section of this E-publication) and distributed at the Working Group stand (which welcomed 100 visitors per day)
- Booklets gathering all Working Group information have been given to Presidents of National Societies in order to promote ESC Working Groups in their local institutions and encourage interactivity.
- A new membership corner was set opposite the Working Group stand, where attendees could start their application online. 156 applications to ESC Working Groups were created during Vienna.
- For the first time, a "Get together Cocktail" was organised by the ESC in order to facilitate interactivity and discussions between representatives of National Working Groups and ESC Constituent Bodies.
- All together (ESC Constituent Bodies and National Working Groups) 80 attendees participated at this cocktail (a good participation rate of 50%)
- National Working Groups from 23 countries were represented, with a good balance between Eastern and Western Europe.
- 21 out of 29 Constituent Bodies were represented.
The friendly atmosphere and original format (tables were organised by topics) enabled cardiologists to easily meet with colleagues with similar interests and/or working in the same area of cardiology.
The meeting generated a friendly and fruitful discussion among the participants. It was a very successful first step to encourage European Scientific Collaboration..
The event will be renewed next year.
Read a full report with participants' testimonials here