President’s Message:

In my last message I looked forward to what promised to be an excellent congress.  It is now time to reflect.

As judged solely on the raw statistics, the 2017 Congress could be regarded as successful.   It was very well attended with 273 attendees (from at least 15 countries), including 35 speakers (from 7 countries).  The attendance at the Continuing Education Programme (CEP) was 115.

Many delegates spoke to me to express their view that it had been a very well run and enjoyable congress.  This is borne out by the delegate evaluation. Thank you to those (the vast majority of delegates) who took the time to complete the survey – your feedback is very valuable.

The results are very consistent and overwhelmingly positive.  I will highlight only a few key points.  The CEP and all of the scientific sessions were rated either Excellent or Good by the vast majority of attendees for both Scientific Content and Relevance.  It is gratifying to see that 93% said they would attend another BTS congress.  Regarding the format of the meeting, 97% thought the number of sessions was about right and 80% favoured the new 3-day format over the 4-day format used previously.  That is particularly pleasing as next year’s congress in Newcastle will be organised over 3-days.

More than 95% of delegates rated the organisation of the congress Excellent or Good.  I am delighted to give special thanks, not only to the sterling work of the Scientific Subcommittee (SSC), but also to our excellent business support team, in particular Steve Hewitt, who led the organisation of the congress.

The feedback also provides many suggestions for improvement and these will be studied carefully by the SSC to ensure that next year’s congress lives up to or, better still, exceeds the high standards set this year.

Finally, I would like to thank sincerely our speakers and all who attended helping make this a very successful congress.

Ernie Harpur

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