If it’s May then it must be Marrakech, Morocco, for your intrepid executive committee’s spring face to face meeting. We did of course spend one day in an airless windowless room discussing IFCN business and then our members gave lectures at the eighth Congrès Marocain de Neurophysiologie Clinique and the Third Congrès MENA de Neuromusculaire and EDX. (MENA is Middle East and North African), held in the Centre des Conférences du Musee Mohammed VI pour la Civilisation de l’Eau au Maroc – AMAN.
Our thanks to The Moroccan committee who invited us and made such a great conference, but particularly to Professor Zouhayr Sourti and to Professor Abderrahmane Chahidi. An additional reason for our visit was to learn about the educational activities and outreach that the Society does both within Morocco but also through much of mainly Francophone Africa and we set aside one afternoon for this.
IFCN and Moroccan members after education meeting
The congress was a great success. Your conscientious President went to nearly all sessions and was there on the last day which ended at noon. It was a great shame that this last part was not better attended, since the quality of presentations was excellent with many lectures given by younger men and women. Don’t always be tempted to skip the end.
Some of the last day attendees
In relation to our discussions in Morocco about teaching, ExCo is setting up a Task Force to look at the possibilities for educational outreach in low- and middle-income countries, (LMICs) under Tina Shahrizaila. We realise this is no easy undertaking, that we need to work with other organisations where possible and that we must be guided by the needs of LMIC countries themselves. Hopefully, there will be more to say on this in the coming years.
At our executive committee we focused on how we might support our Special Interest Groups/IFCN International Societies, and I will be writing to their chairs with our ideas. Similarly, IFCN ExCo would like to encourage the Young Neurophysologists’ Network. Please look at our website for the YNN site and join up and take part if able. We hope to give our younger members an opportunity to learn more about the IFCN and share ideas with their peers. If you are interested in joining, please email info@ifcn.info.
For more information about YNN: https://www.ifcn.info/get-involved/young-neurophysiologists-network
Preparations continue for the ICCN2024 in Jakarta in September. Mindful that some people are finding it takes longer than expected for a visa, we have now extended the Early Bird Registration until June 1st. I hope as many as possible will make it to Jakarta, from our colleagues in the Indonesian Neurological Association, from Asia and from elsewhere. Please do take advantage of the Early Bird reductions. Our awards committee is now considering travel support for those who have submitted abstracts and hopes to announce their decision on this soon, to allow people to plan.
ExCo also turned its attention to future ICCNs with the 2026 in Cartagena, Colombia. We appointed the co-chairs of the scientific committee and the convener, which will be announced in due course, and will begin to focus on this immediately after Jakarta’s successful conclusion.
During the dark days of Covid the executive committee chose the locations for ICCNs 2024 and 2026, with each a little outside our usual pattern. A highlight for Jakarta’s General Assembly will be a return of the presentations and voting on where the 2028 ICCN will be held. At present there are eight bids, which ExCo will reduce to three and invite these to make live bids in Jakarta.
All this talk of ICCNs highlights that now we are holding these every two years work on them becomes more continuous. But it has also allowed us to go to new places and with these to have differing focus between ICCNs. For Jakarta the scientific committee has been aware that most delegates are likely to be from Indonesia and Asia and are neurologist/neurophysiologists who will appreciate good teaching in the clinical aspects of our subject. As a result, some of the more research/academic based symposia submissions were not successful, even from SIGs and committees. This will change for future ICCNs. For 2028 it is likely to be far more geared to research and academic activity. We are also working on ways to have more SIG and committee input to the programme in Cartagena. Maybe we should think that not all ICCNs are the same, and that a balance between clinical teaching and academic work will be seen over a cycle of three or so ICCNs. IFCN is certainly trying to balance reaching new societies in our community while also allowing time and space for novel and exciting research progress.
Returning to Marrakech, ExCo entertained The Moroccan Society at a dinner in a beautiful courtyarded restaurant. Next night our hosts took us to an extravaganza held in a massive old fort. We were met by a series of six different groups of singers and musicians, all pulsing out their complex rhythms. After our meal in the fort’s large parade ground there was a demonstration of expert horsemanship by a group firing rifles, before more musicians and a dancer. The finale involved the whole assemble and a flock of sheep. The Gala Dinner, in the splendid Musee, also involved dancers, singing and enthusiastic dancing by our Moroccan colleagues and one or two guests too. All was great fun. Clinical Neurophysiology, like all science, advances and innovates constantly in research and practice, but alongside this it is gratifying that there is also room for more traditional social events too.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Cole