Event 5th World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery (PCCS 2009)
Organiser International Convention Management Services (ICMS)
Venue Cairns Convention Centre
Delegates 2,290
Date June 21-26



The brief
The Congress is designed to bring together health professionals involved in the research and care of children with heart disease and congenital heart disease.

Challenges
The organising committee wanted to hold the Congress in Asia to focus on issues significant to the region that would otherwise have gone untabled. However, unexpected challenges occurred late in the conference planning, namely the global financial crisis and the outbreak of swine flu.

“It was difficult to plan for the financial crisis, but ultimately it did not greatly affect attendance,” says Professor Dan Penny, PCCS 2009 scientific committee chair, “though some medical institutions restricted the number of participants.

“The outbreak of swine flu was an added challenge, as several universities insisted that participants take an additional week’s leave in forced isolation upon their return. As the congress is only held every four years, the majority continued with their travel plans.”

Execution
PCCS 2009 Conference Chair, Professor Jim Wilkinson, says Cairns ticked all the boxes as a good convention city. He says: “Everyone cared about the success of the event and worked as a team to achieve a world-class result.”

The congress programme involved seven international speciality meetings, which combined on both the first and last days. Organisers were pleased with the volume and quality of content.

All audiovisual aspects were handled by the convention centre, including the ‘live-case’ broadcast feeds to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Japan, Australia and Germany.

Comment
“Our experience was very limited in knowing what it takes to host a successful World Congress,” says Wilkinson. “Many things would have not happened without ICMS and its expert guidance and commitment.”

Sarah Markey-Hamm, ICMS national manager, says: “Cairns Convention Centre is one of my top three convention centres in the world to work with. It is the ‘one team’ attitude that continues to impress me.”