BCS Annual Conference 2010

The BCS Annual Conference  was held in Manchester 7-9 June. If you were not there, you missed a great meeting. 2,400 members and other delegates did attend over the 3 days. Huge thanks go to the BCS staff, Programme Committee, Affiliated Groups, and Exhibitors as well as the speakers and chairs for contributing to one of the best BCS conferences in memory.

The National Training Day programme, Educational Spotlight sessions and the Top Ten Trials, a distillation of the key points and expert summary from some of the major recent trials, brought in large audiences. If you would like a summary from the sessions, check out the session reports from our roving reporters and webcasts of many of the sessions will be available soon. It was good to see so many of the trainees at the conference this year. Many (over 100) sat the Knowledge Based Assessment exam on the Sunday.  It had a real “should have brought my pencil sharpener” exam feel to it with individual desks, laptops and appropriately stern invigilators. Very glad to be past that career stage!

Aware of the need to provide quality education for trained cardiologists as well as trainees, we piloted some educational spotlight sessions focussing on key clinical areas and providing a balanced and thoughtful insight into evidence based patient care. Some sessions had “revalidation” type questions associated with them which could be completed subsequently in the Cyber Cafe, with a certificate of completion available to members. This is a format which we hope will provide high quality education for our members whilst facilitating future revalidation needs.

The Annual Dinner and all that jazz, was a real highlight. Not only did the magicians dazzle us with displays of trickery which put even the most hardened interventional cardiologist into a spin, but our own Will Orr gave an amazing display of talent, singing with his jazz band after dinner to the delight of all. Peter Mills and Roger Boyle were awarded the Mackenzie medal for outstanding services to British cardiology and both thoroughly well deserved. Check out their stories with the insightful interviews conducted by Denise Braganza

BCS is twinned with the Californian Chapter of the American College of Cardiology who, with the ACC itself were well represented at the conference and contributed to an excellent Highlights of the ACC session and to other parts of the programme. The conference also allowed the inaugural meeting of the GB & Ireland Chapter of the ACC to take place. Current FACC holders constitute the chapter members and if you need further details on this or how to apply for an FACC, contact Nilesh Samani as the Chapter secretary.

Manchester is an excellent venue for the BCS Annual Conference and we will be there next year, 13-15 June 2011. Put the dates in your diary. Feedback this year was excellent and next year we are planning further changes to the programme with clearer themed tracks to education and entertain you.

We packed a lot into three days and tried to tell the world through our Twitter stream & BCS Blog but few were listening! Maybe next year?

Iain A Simpson                                                Sarah Clarke
VP Education & Research,                               VP Elect, Education & Research
Chairman, Programme Committee                     Chair, Communication