EUROPEAN TISSUE REPAIR SOCIETY - ANNUAL MEETING
Cardiff International Arena, 5-8 September 2001

Plans are developing for the Society's annual meeting in 2001. This will be held at the Cardiff International Arena from 5-8 September. The Arena is a multi-purpose facility which will enable us to have a main auditorium for the plenary sessions (with seating for over 1000 delegates), multiple breakout rooms holding from 30-200 delegates for parallel sessions, and an exhibition and poster area, all in the same building.

The facility is in the centre of the city and is within walking distance of a large number of hotels offering varying levels of accommodation and easy access to restaurants and other recreational facilities, including those providing alcoholic refreshments!

The annual meeting will form part of the International Wound Healing Week in 2001, which will allow us to have clinically oriented meetings at the beginning of the week followed by a day where a series of focus meetings and satellite symposia will be held before the opening of the ETRS meeting late afternoon on 5 September, then having three days of scientific oriented ETRS meetings. The provision of a wide range of educational activities on wound healing at the same venue during the same week will provide a unique opportunity for efficient use of resources for all professional groups involved in this subject. The holding of the meetings in a consecutive manner will not damage the independence of each of the separate meetings but may encourage cross fertilisation of the clinical and scientific groups by providing opportunities for delegates to attend any combinations of the meetings on offer.

The local planning team represents the diverse interest in healing in the Cardiff area. We are intending to provide sessions discussing the latest research on subjects additionally discussed during the ETRS meeting that relate to the components of the healing process. In addition, we intend to provide delegates with the opportunity to head latest research findings in areas such as healing in the eye, cartilage, bone, facial and renal tissue to enable us to identify some new ideas for our own research and therefore have a value in soft tissue repair.

The outline of the programme will be available very soon and the final programme and confirmed speakers being available in early 2001. The call for free papers will be made with the first announcement and a closing date as late as possible to enable planning of sessions to occur, but also providing researchers as much opportunity as possible to present their latest results.

Please make a note in your diary now for what promises to be the best ETRS meeting yet, and which will incorporate the most successful parts of our annual meeting with some novel and new components. I look forward to seeing you in Cardiff next year.