https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.91.6a

David Wyllie, Meetings Secretary, explains The Society’s new approach to the meetings calendar

In 2014 the Main Meeting of The Society returns to London for the first time since 2006. This flagship event will be held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in the heart of Westminster from 30 June to 2 July.

Next year also sees a new and exciting development in the events calendar when we launch ‘Topic Meetings’. The Meetings’ Committee are keen to foster opportunities for our membership which will allow them to attend meetings that provide a science programme which breaks down barriers within subject areas – we hope that Topic Meetings will achieve this. In consultation with our Theme Leads, the Meetings Committee proposes that we hold the first of these Topic Meetings in the autumn of 2014 in the subject area of obesity.

The structure of this two-to-three day meeting will be based on the highly successful Biomedical Basis of Elite Performance meeting held in March 2012. Topic Meetings will incorporate education and outreach activities, co-ordination of publications in our journals and we will invite cognate societies together with other charitable organisations and funders of research to join with The Society at a scientific meeting that brings together leaders in the field. Importantly, we want to create an event that appeals to Members from all of our existing Themes. Our intention is to hold two Topic Meetings per year from 2015 onwards (in the spring and autumn) with planned future Topic Meetings to include ageing and degeneration, and another on imaging. We welcome suggestions for other topics that you would like to see included in our programme of events. The excellent facilities of Hodgkin Huxley House in London, with its Bernard Katz Auditorium, also provide additional opportunities to host smaller and more focused meetings for around 75 attendees. These new initiatives, together with our Main Meeting, which will continue to be held in late June/early July, will allow The Society to continue to host meetings that provide excellent opportunities for scientific debate.