President's Blog
Dr Rachel Green 4th Edition. December 2023
Welcome readers to the last blog of 2023. What a year it has been for AGES. I recently had the pleasure of travelling to Nashville for the AAGL Congress, and was lucky enough to see several AGES members present as well as receive awards. This was an incredible opportunity to shine on a world stage with around 2,000 delegates. Congratulations to all our representatives. The AAGL meeting really is a mega meeting: huge trade halls, giants of the business and incredible plenaries and workshops all spread out over four days. Nashville provided the location this year and it did not disappoint. The Country Music awards were held on the last day of the meeting directly across from the conference venue. It was the who’s who of country music in town. The conference culminated in a line dancing party – what a way to end a meeting. Next year the AAGL meeting moves to New Orleans. We have a strong relationship with the AAGL and I encourage members to put forward abstracts for presentation.
I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all our members for their support this year. The AGES Board have worked extremely hard this year to bring some great quality events and initiatives to the society. I will share some highlights with you.
The main conferences this year were the ASM – Evolution not Revolution held at the Hyatt Regency Sydney. This meeting attracted over 450 delegates, and saw our two international speakers Mats Brännström and Carla Tomasetti provide us with some wonderful insights.
Our second meeting was the Focus Meeting – The Modern Muse held in conjunction with the AAGL in Bangkok. This was a first for AGES, partnering with the AAGL. We were also delighted to have the involvement of the Thai Society of Gynaecological Endoscopists giving us some truly memorable talks. Bangkok provided a wonderful backdrop to this meeting, and it will remain a highlight for my time on the Board.
Our last meeting for this year was the recently held Beyond the Pelvis Symposium – Striving to Thrive at the Sofitel in Melbourne. This meeting blended science and wellbeing to bring the attendees a novel insight. We held a conference party and karaoke to celebrate the meeting. What a fun night. There were many songs sung including a very enthusiastic version of “Take Me Home Country Road”!
We saw the return of the dissection workshops this year after COVID interruptions. We also held a virtual Lap-D, allowing an online audience access to this amazing product. We have dissection workshops planned again for next year. These are always sell out events so plan early to avoid disappointment.
Several states held careers seminars now rebadged as “Mapping Your Future”. These events are sponsored by Avant and allow trainees some insights into various career paths for O+G. We plan to hold an on-line version next year.
I would like to thank our AGES Industry Partners for their support in 2023 and we look forward to working with you again in 2024. We wish you and your families all the best for the festive season.
So now onto planning for 2024. Our conferences next year will be as follows:
ASM "How do I do that?”. Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre 29th February to 2nd March. This meeting will focus on some very practical aspects of our speciality. Our international speakers are Tanvir Singh – Hysteroscopic surgeon from Hyderabad and Leslie Kardos – Robotic surgeon from San Francisco. We hope you will all join us at this special location. Remember, child minding will be available at this meeting.
The Pelvic Floor Meeting will return in 2024 being held in Sydney 26 and 27th July. Our last meeting for 2024 will be the Focus Meeting being held in Hobart 1st and 2nd November.
It has been a very busy year for the AGES Board. Not only have we brought the membership some amazing meetings, but we have also been busy in the background working on projects such as Social Media, Webinars, Member Engagement and International Relations. Our training program is going from strength to strength following the update to the curriculum.
So now it’s the end of the year and time to reflect on the year that’s been and look forward to the year ahead. For me it has been a challenging year with a very busy working life and two teenage daughters. I travelled from the AAGL meeting in Nashville to the UK to attend my father’s funeral - after his long battle with Parkinson’s disease and then Parkinson’s dementia. I am now looking forward to some well-earned leave in January taking the family to Japan to enjoy some snow sports. I hope the AGES membership enjoy some quality family time over this Christmas and New Year break. I will leave you all with some highlight photos from 2023.
Regards,
Dr Rachel Green
President, AGES
president@ages.com.au
