COVID-19: EFORT’s OFFICIAL STATEMENT FOR ANNUAL CONGRESS 2021
Dear EFORT Community,
Strong from the experience of our first virtual congress last year, Vienna should have been our congress venue this year and we would have been prepared and delighted to welcome you this summer in Austria for the 22nd EFORT Annual Congress.
The pandemic has taught us how to adapt and make our organisation agile. It is our first priority to preserve everyone’s health and deliver Education & Training in a safe environment. Vaccines are on their way but we feel that June/July may be slightly too early to guarantee a risk free face-to-face experience for all.
Hence, the EFORT Board have once more made the difficult decision not to hold the EFORT Annual Congress in its original format this year.
However, experiences of many virtual meetings over the past year have left us with the strongest of wishes to make this second streamed meeting as interactive as possible. Maintaining compliance with changing local regulations, we are looking into the possibility to make some parts of this meeting hybrid in nature, possibly with local participation or even hosting live hubs in chosen areas of Europe and connecting through The EFORT Live TV Studio.
Even though we are facing quite a number of planning challenges which are obviously subject to the future evolution of the health situation, the dates of this second hybrid offering of EFORT stand firm: 30 June to 02 July 2021.
We are working on a richer offer than ever before. The main “congress days” will be complemented by a series of educational activities taking place throughout 2021, starting with a webinar series of more than 10 broadcast programmes between March and December. Other items have already been identified and are currently under review by the EFORT Congress Innovation Group.
Collaborative schemes with our industry partners should reflect an unexpected positive impact of this pandemic. It has propelled EFORT into a tangible implementation of its EOTEP concept, the framework of the educational structure of our offerings to you, developed in conjunction with National, Specialty and affiliated societies as well as our valued corporate partners.
With the timely and appropriate main theme of “Sustainable Professional Practice”, we will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of EFORT this year (since its inception in 1991).
Furthermore, we are honoured to welcome the Asia Pacific Orthopaedic Association (APOA) as Invited Nation to this hybrid EFORT congress, who will enrich the scientific programme with a definite international flavor.
We are very much looking forward to sharing this special occasion with you.
