The Road to ISMRM Singapore 2016
The 2015 ISMRM has just finished, but we are well on our way to making sure the 2016 ISMRM in Singapore will be the best annual meeting so far. In this series of posts, I hope to tell you about some of the things we have in mind for the meeting next year. Some of these will be about technical changes to the meeting, but mostly I hope to tell you about my experiences in Singapore and what you have to look forward to when (I hope) you will be visiting the annual meeting in 2016.
It takes an incredible team effort to make a meeting like this happen. This includes a years of planning by the central office and local organizers in Singapore to ensure that the venues and hotels are all set up for our over 6,000 attendees. On the scientific side, the members of the Annual Meeting Program Committee (AMPC) are the ones who ensure that the scientific and educational content of the meeting is top notch. The 40+ member AMPC is responsible for all of the educational and scientific content that you experience during the annual meeting. In particular, I have to thank Scott Reeder who, as vice-chair of the committee, has been responsible for leading our educational program for Singapore. You may not believe it, but the planning for the educational program in Singapore started in January 2015, continued during the annual meeting in Toronto and is now nearly complete. Many of you have already agreed to provide educational talks for next year and I very much appreciate your willingness to teach our next generation of MR scientists, clinicians and technologists and radiographers.
I’m writing this from the roof of the Pan Pacific hotel in Singapore during our site visit in June 2015. In the next few posts, I will show you some of the amazing places I’ve visited during this visit. But before we get to that, there are a few things that I’d like to guarantee you.
First: it will be hot outside. Singapore sits very close to the equator, and it is very humid. However, I have found it very comfortable, especially when you can almost always find a nearby restaurant or drinking establishment that is air conditioned. But I would almost certainly leave your winter coat at home. I doubt you will be cold here!
I can also guarantee that you will find great food everywhere you look. When I ask people that live here, “what do you like the most about Singapore?” every one of them has mentioned food. As I will describe in later posts, because of the multicultural heritage of Singapore, you can find food from almost every corner of the globe here. There is a heavy influence of Chinese, Malaysian and Indian food, but I have also had fantastic North American and European food here as well. There is even a Paulaner Brewery right across from the convention center that serves beer and food just like what you can find when visit the original brewery in Munich, Germany.
Finally, I can guarantee that you will find a welcoming people of Singapore. Everyone we have met, from the managers at the largest hotels to the smallest shop owner, has been so open, friendly and curious to hear about our upcoming meeting. I can’t wait to hear about your adventures out in the interesting cultural corners of the fantastic country!
Please keep an eye out on the ISMRM homepage where you can find the most up to date information on the meeting, as well as any future updates to this series. I wish you all the best and I can’t wait to see you all in Singapore!
— Mark
