II World Congress of Public Health Nutrition
Meeting up with colleagues from all over the world is important for the progress of our profession, getting updated and building our professional network. In order to provide possibilities to really discuss rather than engage in inactive listening, the programme includes symposia, keynote lectures, workshops, controversy debates, breakfast and lunch forums including ‘meet the professor’ opportunities, special sessions and poster presentations. The total scope of the congress is promising for providing that important ingredient that makes it important to meet in person rather than conferencing over the Internet. This conference is NOT funded by food industry, which is unique for nutritional conferences of this magnitude (http://nutrition2010.com.pt).
Evaluation of the congress
The experienced conference participant knows that each conference adds a few names to that important networking list of younger and/or more experienced colleagues, and that each conference should at least provide ONE important take-home message. An important follow-up of conferences would be to monitor the take-home messages among the participants.
Meeting online or in person
In order to ultimately adhere to a more sustainable solution for the future we should make sure that it is possible to follow most of the presentations online; and why not also to comment and interact online? At this particular meeting, perhaps it would be appropriate to engage participants to come up with sustainable solutions for future meetings.
Porto in September
The weather in Porto in September is fantastic, average temperature just below 20°C and a comforting breeze from the ocean. Porto city is certainly well worth a visit and the social and cultural programme looks as promising as the scientific one. Porto is a city designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the oldest cities in Europe, with streets perfect for strolling and beautiful views, not to mention the fantastic food and port wine.
World Public Health Nutrition Association
In Porto, the second chance for public health nutrition professionals from across the globe to meet and interact is presented, following the I World Congress in Barcelona a few years ago. By creating our own set of meetings and our own World Public Health Nutrition Association (WPHNA; www.wphna.org) we are underlining our perception of public health nutrition as being a scientific area of its own, encompassing public health as well as nutritional sciences. In this context, it is of great importance that our collaboration with the food industry becomes transparent and that we have the opportunity to develop our important and certainly very political area in peace and quiet. The further development of the association will be very important and exciting. At the conference in Porto, there will be a special session for WPHNA, where we can discuss future developments for the association after the launch in Bangkok last year.
Substantially increased impact factor
During 2009, despite an increasing number of papers published, this journal increased its impact factor by 29 %, to reach the level of 2·749. We are very pleased with this development and hereby express our thanks to all those who published, reviewed and edited the journal, and look forward to continued success.
