From the President

Despite the transition to virtual Congresses, Working Party meetings and diverse and expanded educational events, ISBT excelled in advancing the science and practice of blood banking, transfusion medicine and cellular therapies, in education and in our mission of service to blood donors and patients throughout the world.

In 2023 many of us shared the successful return to in person meetings at the ISBT Regional Congresses in Gothenburg, Sweden in June and Cape Town, South Africa in November: two beautiful and vibrant cities with first class meeting venues in great countries. The Gothenburg Congress had 1960 delegates from 160 countries, including 1291 from Europe, 326 from Asia-Pacific, 178 from North America, with the remainder from the Middle East, South America, and Africa. The Cape Town Congress had 800 registrants from 63 countries, including from 17 African countries with 300 attendees from the host country South Africa. Each congress included four full days of science and networking, anchored by ~30 Educational Symposia and Workshops. The Commercial Exhibitions were outstanding and well attended, as were the Congress Parties at unique venues with local themes and entertainment. The creativity and hard work of Local Organizing Committees, in collaboration with the ISBT Scientific Secretary, Vice Presidents, Central Office Staff and MCI, was rewarded by accolades from many attendees throughout the Congresses and formal feedback from surveys of speakers, senior and junior scientific participants, and our 15 commercial partners.

The success of these Regional Congresses was very gratifying and reaffirmed the value to ISBT membership of convening two Regional Congresses during odd years (the Global Congress is held in June in even years). However, the society should be aware that after the success of virtual meetings during the pandemic (2020-2022) and considering the many factors involved in organizing and executing two Regional Congresses, the ISBT Board conducted a careful analysis and spent significant time over the past two years considering moving to single Congresses each year. Factors that were carefully evaluated included: experience of other societies that convene single meetings each year, including AABB, ASH and many national and regional blood transfusion societies that are affiliated with ISBT; perspectives of delegates, corporate partners and exhibitors; perspectives of membership in different regions, and particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) on the value of the non-European Regional Congresses which enable attendance by local LMIC participants with fewer resources for travelling to international congresses; financial considerations for the society; workload on the ISBT Central Office staff; and impact on the environment. At the meeting in Cape Town the Board unanimously voted to continue with two Regional Meetings in odd years. This decision was based in great part on the outstanding success of the Gothenburg and Cape Town Congresses and our society’s fundamental commitment to global support of research and education, including in LMICs.

I am also pleased to share the decision of the Board to establish a new “Big Data Working Party”, with the first formal meeting in Barcelona after a successful workshop at the Gothenburg Congress. Promoting the generation of large-scale datasets, and methodologies and studies using big data including large donor and donor-recipient databases linked to clinical outcomes, disease registries and repositories, was one of my two primary goals as President.