Exploring Research, Expanding Knowledge, Education in Motion

The Calgary 2004 Annual Meeting

F. Kelley deSouza, M.D., FRCSC
COA Local Arrangements Committee Chair
Calgary, AB

On behalf of your Local Arrangements Committee, COA Staff, the Pinnacle Group, our on-site meeting planners, and all Calgary orthopaedic surgeons, I would like to welcome you and your family to the 59^th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association (COA) combined with the 38^th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Orthopaedic Research Society (CORS), and the 27^th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Orthopaedic Nurses Association (CONA).

Dr. James N. (Jim) Powell, your local COA Programme Chair, and Dr. Kevin Hildebrand, CORS Programme Chair, along with their Programme Committees, have developed an ambitious educational programme that will incorporate live surgical demonstrations, stimulating workshops and symposia, and cutting- edge Instructional Course Lectures. As always, there will be an abundance of high-quality podium presentations. The COA has elected to present this material in a condensed three-day meeting that will keep us engaged from start to finish.

The Partners Programme, developed by Mmes Susan Hollinshead, Colleen McIntyre-deSouza, and Cathy Schachar, will take participants from our city’s cultural centres to our regions mountain get-a-ways. All age groups will be included in a programme that will allow you to exhaust yourself with physical challenges or be pampered among some of the most spectacular surroundings in Canada.

Dr. Norman S. (Norm) Schachar has developed an outstanding evening of Opening Ceremonies, which promises to be exciting, thought provoking, and thoroughly entertaining. Marching bands, a World Champion hoop dancer and local entertainers will frame prominent speakers, who will comment on critical national health issues. Afterwards, we hope that all of you will join our local hosts at the Telus Convention Centre for food, drinks and more entertainment to kick off our meeting.

On Saturday night you will be entertained in the true Wild West tradition. We hope you will join us for a thrilling evening of bull riding, a Western BBQ and an old fashioned barn dance, complete with a live band. Don’t forget your jeans, boots, Stetsons and big belt buckles for this one!

In Calgary, you will find all the sophistication of a thriving business centre and the fun of a real Western town. Come to the meeting and then stay for the early days of a summer in the mountains.

We look forward to seeing you in Calgary!