title: Organising a World Congress of Epidemiology (WCE): reflections and lessons from the XIX WCE, Scotland.
abstract: The 3-yearly World Congress of Epidemiology is the premier, international, scientific conference organised under the auspices of the International Epidemiological Association (in open competition). This paper explores the justification for seeking to host the Congress and reflects on the structures and processes adopted in making the XIXth Congress in Scotland happen. Preparing the bid was invaluable for forming collaborations, generating scientific ideas, and garnering opinion. After the bid was accepted, we formed a local organising committee, named the Management Executive Committee to signal its decision making authority; and scientific, fundraising, marketing, international and social subcommittees. There was uncertainty about critical matters such as delegate numbers, costs and the total budget. Early decisions had to be made on, for example, the fee and fundraising target (£250,000), despite financial risks. Development of the scientific programme was a critical step that underpinned fundraising and marketing and permitted involvement of the international committee. Overall the 2011 WCE succeeded. The key ingredients to success were: a large collaboration of institutions and individuals; early pledges of financial support mostly from the UK; the valuable and relevant experience of the professional conference organisers; unstinting support and advice from IEA; and the effectiveness of the committee structure. The educational and professional development benefits of this WCE will reach a worldwide community and not just delegates, because of video, PowerPoint and textual accounts being open access on the Internet. This reach is unprecedented for IEA's World Congresses. We anticipate that the Congress will translate into better public health practice, better future Congresses, advances in epidemiology and improved population health.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, UK. Electronic address: Raj.Bhopal@ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Bhopal
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of, Aberdeen, Polwarth Building, Foresterhill, Aberdeen.
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Public Health, University of Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McEwen
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of, Aberdeen, Polwarth Building, Foresterhill, Aberdeen.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: MacFarlane
authors.affiliation: Public Health, NHS Lothian, Deaconess House, 128 The Pleasance, Edinburgh.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McCallum
authors.affiliation: International Development, NHS Health Scotland, Woodburn House, Canaan Lane, Edinburgh.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pattison
authors.affiliation: Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU), University of Oxford, Richard Doll Building, Oxford.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bhala
authors.affiliation: Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU), University of Oxford, Richard Doll Building, Oxford.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Peto
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Wellbeing, Public Health, University of Glasgow, 1 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Pell
mesh_terms: D003226:Congresses as Topic / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004813:Epidemiology / Q000639:trends*; D007391:International Cooperation; D012606:Scotland