I have just returned from the Eighth World Congress of
Psycho-oncology, which was held in Venice on October 18–21, 2006,
and attracted the largest number of attendees ever to participate in the
annual scientific meeting of the International Psycho-Oncology Society
(IPOS). There were close to 1500 participants from 58 countries. Professor
Luigi Grassi of the University of Ferrara, the current President of IPOS,
was the organizing chair of the Congress, and he and his local scientific
committee did a magnificent job of hosting a most diverse and
multidisciplinary meeting. A Pre-Congress Psychosocial Academy, consisting
of two days of intensive workshops led by outstanding international
faculty, was held in beautiful Ferrara, just prior to the start of the
Congress in Venice. As the incoming vice president of IPOS, a member of
the Psychosocial Academy held in Ferrara, and an active scientific
participant in the Eighth World Congress in Venice, it is fair to say that
I was pretty busy. In fact, because of all of my activities related to
this conference and IPOS, I was away from home and work for nine full
days, the longest time I've ever been away from my family. This
commitment of an unusually inordinate amount of time to a scientific
conference activity made me sit down and evaluate whether the commitment
of that much time was really worth it. I was aware, the entire time I
attended the conference-related activities, that I needed to come away
with at least one important lesson, idea, thought, or inspiration;
otherwise I would have felt that I had not spent the time wisely. In other
words, I needed the answer to the questions “What brought me to
Venice, and where was I going beyond Venice?” Existential questions?
Of course!
University of Dundee, Dundee, 12 April 2005
