A very successful EMWA conference in Belgium – and poster information for Birmingham!

The 43rd EMWA conference began on Thursday, 3 November 2016, and concluded on the following Saturday in Brussels, Belgium. There were 221 registered delegates for the conference and they could choose from 10 advanced workshops and 18 foundation workshops. The educational programme was so popular that ten workshops were sold out.

On Thursday evening, EMWA’s autumn conference started with a traditional opening session. Prof Robert Colebunders of the Global Health Institute at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, presented on investigating epidemics in Africa. Ex-EMWA President Rita Wellens introduced delegates to Belgium through her Belgium Rocks: the Heart of Europe and All that Jazz presentation. A short introduction to the EMWA Executive Committee members was followed by a lively networking session.

Early on Friday morning, Julie Charlesworth introduced a new interactive IT, social media and productivity tools session ‘Show IT, Share IT, Rise and Shine’. Table leaders Evguenia Alechine, Beatrix Doerr, Sam Hamilton, Adam Jacobs, Sally Jackson and Jackie Johnson shared their tips with attendees. Sally Jackson and Jane Tricker also contributed to the success of this trial run.

In the evening, an extended Freelance Business Forum (FBF) was moderated by Julie Charlesworth who presented updates on the FBF, related activities and many initiatives across Europe. Satyen Shenoy provided a brief update on recent developments in Germany.

The guest speaker was Marco Torregrossa, Secretary General at the European Forum for Independent Professionals. Introduced by Julie, Marco gave an inspiring, informative presentation leading to lively open discussion, and then stayed on to mingle with freelancers during the excellent table discussion session. Table leaders here were Julia Donnelly, Karin Gewert, Satyen Shenoy, Andrea Palluch, Kari Skinningsrud, and Jane Tricker. It was a stimulating and friendly networking environment.

All of the social activities were fully booked. EMWA delegates enjoyed such highlights as Belgian chocolate, beer and admired Brussel’s Art Nouveau style.

With Brussels over, our thoughts already turn to the next major EMWA event.

The 44th EMWA conference in Birmingham, England, will be held from 2-6 May 2017 at The ICC and abstracts are now being accepted. Posters based on accepted abstracts will be displayed at the conference.

• Abstracts must be based on original research, case reports or reviews and relate to any field of medical writing, communications, editing or translation
• Abstracts must be structured (Introduction, Methodology, Results, Conclusion) and include fewer than 250 words (excluding title, authors and affiliations)
• Abstracts must be submitted in English (UK spelling)
• Abstracts must be submitted on the official EMWA submission form which is available below
• Abstracts must be submitted by email to emwaconference@emwa.org by 16 December 2016, 23:59 GMT, by the presenting author
• By submitting an abstract, the authors confirm that the data have NOT been previously published as a full paper and agree that if it is accepted it will be published in the official EMWA journal, Medical Writing
• All abstracts will be reviewed by an expert panel and may be selected for poster presentation (or rejected)
• Authors will be notified of the panel decision and will receive poster preparation guidelines by 17 March 2017
• The presenting author MUST be registered for the conference
• The presenting author MUST ensure that all co-authors are aware of, contributed to and agree with the content of the abstract before submission
• The presenting author MUST state in the submission email that this condition is met

We hope to see you in Birmingham in 2017!

Your EMWA Executive Committee and Head Office staff.