The 1991 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA)∗ one of the world's most influential psychiatric organisations with a membership of over 35,000, and an annual budget of $24 million, was attended by over 12,000 persons from all over the world. (The cost of the meeting itself was about $2.5 million). Over 230 workshops and symposia were presented together with lectures from distinguished researchers, video presentations, debates and 600 posters. With up to 25 concurrent sessions, it was impossible for any one individual to attend more than a fraction of the programme. The theme, chosen by outgoing president, Dr Elissa Benedek, Professor of Child Psychiatry at Michigan, was ‘Our Children - Our Future’.