MEETING: International Congress of Human Genet- ics (ICHG) 2011, convening at the Palais des congrès de Montréal on Oct. 11–15. ICHG is organized every five years on behalf of the Interna- tional Federation of Human Genetics Societies by one of its member organizations — this year, the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), which is co-locating its Annual Meeting with ICHG. About 7,000 researchers and clinicians from 60 countries are expected to attend.
CHALLENGES: ICHG has gotten too big for its britches — or at least, for Montreal’s. “We’re challenged, because it’s a smaller exhibit hall,” said Pauline Minhinnett, CMP, ASHG’s director of meetings. “Right now we’re maxed out at just over 200 booths” — about 50 fewer than usual. To free up space, ASHG is chang-
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ing up its poster displays, which are housed in the ex- hibit hall. “In the past,” Minhin- nett said, “people have been allowed to keep their poster up all three days. This year they’ll take it down so other presenters can put up their posters, which means less space for posters and more space for exhibit booths.” There’s also the chal-
lenge of ASHG meeting in an international destination. “The concern is making sure that people on visas working in the United States can leave and go to Canada,” Minhin- nett said, “and then get back into the United States without going back to their own coun- try to get a visa reissued.”
INITIATIVES: To emphasize the international nature of the meeting, ASHG is adding a “global village” to the show floor. “We’re asking all our international nonprofit exhibi-
tors to exhibit in that area,” Minhinnett said. “That brings people to one place from around the world where they can discuss issues in a kind of lounge environment.” To spark even more dis-
cussion, ASHG has added two “plenary debate sessions” ad- dressing controversial topics: “How Technology Will Affect the Future Practice of Medi- cal Genetics” and “Owning the Genome: The Patenting and Licensing of Genes and the Impact on Medical Genet- ics.” “At scientific meetings like ours, there’s always new science, and that really helps build a buzz,” Minhinnett said. “This is just another kind of buzz to add to the conference, and to make it look different than any other previous year.” n
WORLD STAGE: For the International Congress of Human Genetics, ASHG is diversifying its usual exhibit hall (above) with a “global village” of nonprofits, and shaking up its ple- nary sessions (below) with panel debates on controversial topics.