The 49th Annual Meeting of the EBMT was a special one. After three years in a row of being virtual, the EBMT community made it to a face-to-face Annual Meeting where we were able to see new and familiar faces, plus enjoy the beautiful city of Paris. The atmosphere was vibrant and the excellent scientific programme organised by Mohamad Mohty together with a broad and representative Scientific Committee was accompanied by lively coffee and lunch breaks during which everybody was able to comment, to discuss and to reconnect with each other. Rooms were full of attendees eager to learn and to listen to recognised experts in the field; overall it was a big success.
The numbers were outstanding, more than 4,500 attendees on-site were complemented with more than 1,200 virtual attendees, representing more than 100 countries. We counted with the presence of more than 450 chairs and speakers; high-level science, in the cutting edge of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy was delivered in more than 200 oral presentations and 900 posters. The scientific meeting was well accompanied by well-designed and planned social events; the welcome reception at the Palais de Congress and the networking event at the Pavillon d’Armenonville represented a happy end to days full of top science.
As always, the success of the EBMT was possible thanks to the constant work of many people; I am extremely thankful to Mohamad Mohty and the local scientific committee for being able to put together an attractive and engaging scientific programme that brought together the latest breakthroughs in the cellular therapy field, to all the speakers and participants that made the effort to come to our Annual Meeting and to contribute with their own research and their commitment, to the EBMT operational team that took care of every single detail to make the meeting an unforgettable one and, last but not the least, to our pharmaceutical sponsors that support the Society in all these scientific challenges. A special mention to all our transplant sister societies that contributed to the success of interesting joint sessions that allowed us to converge in specific topics sometimes being seen from different angles.
Finally, a special thank you from my side goes out to Harry Dolstra that left the Treasurer position this year as well as to Selim Corbacioglu and Régis Peffault de Latour that ended their terms as Paediatric Diseases and Aplastic Anaemia Working Party Chairs, respectively and a warm welcome to Mette Hazenberg, that has been elected as the new Treasurer of the EBMT and to Krzyzstof Kalwak, Antonio Risitano and Emmanuel Angelucci that have become the new Paediatric Diseases, Aplastic Anaemia and Haemoglobinopathies Working Parties Chairs during this year’s elections.
A special and dedicated mention to Andreu Gusi that after 14 years steps down from the Executive Director position; thank you Andreu for your leadership during this period of time and, a warm welcome to Mirjam Steinbuch that will be occupying this position from now on: Mirjam, you will have all our support.
Now, it is time to move forward and I am already looking forward to meeting all of you again during the 50th Annual Meeting of the EBMT in Glasgow from 14-17 April 2024; where we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary as scientific society and 50 years of community. The EBMT team is already working on it. In the meantime, be safe and I invite you to join all the additional EBMT activities happening throughout this year!