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The Australasian Division had a promotion desk near the registration area. Tiah Miller, the representative from Intermedia (the Congress Organiser we have engaged to help us to run the 2004 meeting) arranged a very
nice display. She was assisted by Jan McLean, our Secretary, Leah Shander, IAP Congress adviser, and delegates from our Division. Together we saturated the meeting with kangaroo lapel badges, and small koala bears.
About 800 people filled in preliminary registration forms. We contacted all the companies that were exhibiting, with a view to inviting them to come to Brisbane.
Above and below: The information stand announcing the Congress in Brisbane was manned by Jan McLean, Leah Shander (I.A.P. Congress Organiser) and Tiah Miller from the
Congress Organiser, Intermedia which will be responsible for organising the Brisbane meeting.
Scientific Program
This was of the high quality usually found at such meetings of the I.A.P.. An innovation at this Congress was a series of master classes conducted by a pair of speakers for a small
audience. Admission to these classes was by registration on the Registration Form.
A review of some of the functions attended by members of the Australasian Division Executive during the Congress
The members of the Executive worked hard to make contact with potential key speakers and delegates for Congress 2004. They also made contacts with potential sponsors. They
circulated through the meeting to assess the organisation and to look for ideas for Brisbane, both things to be done, and things to be avoided. Bob Eckstein arranged a dinner on
Monday evening which was attended by many of the thirty or so Australian delegates to the Congress. He indicated what the Executive was doing and encouraged the other delegates
to make similar observations. The feedback from this group will be quite useful. The social events organised by the Congress were enjoyable and the social contacts made will be
useful in the future. The Opening Ceremony was particularly spectacular with a learned dissertation on the famous Dutch artist, Rembrandt, and the finale, in which a group of
actors, dressed exactly as the characters in Rembrandt's famous painting "The Nightwatch", formed a tableau on stage in front of the painting. The actors were each dressed to represent
one of the characters. They posed in front of the painting in the same manner as the subjects.
Other Functions attended by members of the Executive
The Bi-Annual Meeting of the International Executive of the I.A.P. was held on the day before the Congress started. A Council Meeting was held on the morning of the first day. It is at
these two meetings that the policy decisions of the I.A.P. are made. They are then presented to the formal Business Meeting which is held during the Congress itself. At each
International Congress, the President of the Congress invites members of the Executives of the various Divisions to a formal dinner. On this occasion the dinner was held in the Grand
Hotel close to the city centre. This building began as a monastery. It was then the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, and then a Council chamber for the
Burgomasters (Lord Mayors) of the City of Amsterdam. It is now an exclusive hotel.
Above and below: The Tropen Institute
The dinner was held in a stately room which has served as a refectory for the monastery, boardroom of the company and the council, and now a dining room for special functions.
Delegates were transported to the hotel by canal boats. Some of the hotels had jetties outside their front doors. The trip along the canals in the early evening, when the light had
not quite faded, was truly beautiful. Many of the canals are lined by houseboats which are permanently moored there. The Dutch do not have curtains drawn at this time of the evening,
and the houseboats and the houses lining the canals were a spectacular sight.
The British Division which hosted the meeting, had a small cocktail party to celebrate the XXV anniversary of publication of the journal Histopathology. This was a joint venture of the
British Division of the I.A.P. and Blackwell Publishing House (Oxford). The American Registry of Pathology hosted a cocktail party to launch the first two editions of their new
series entitled "Non Tumor Pathology Fascicles". Some of the authors were present and they autographed copies of the books.
The Japanese Division Executive members had a special dinner to which they invited Jack Strong (Treasurer, I.A.P.) and Robin Cooke (Editor, Newsbulletin). The President of the
Japanese Division, Bob Osamura presented both of the guests with a special award to commemorate their contributions to the Japanese Division.
As Past President of the History of Pathology Society, Robin Cooke arranged a Walking Tour of the old university city of Leiden. This was sponsored by the company, Sakura, which
has its European headquarters in Leiden. The tour was originally planned for one day, but the demand for tickets was such that the tour was offered for two days which were fully
booked. The President of Sakura, Mr Kinichi Matsumoto, joined the tour on one of these days. His grandfather established the company Sakura. In the early days it sold
microscopes. Mr Matsumoto expanded the company to cover a wide range of laboratory equipment. It now has regional offices in Europe, and in North and South America, as well
as in Japan. The Australian agent is Bayer. Sakura has been a major sponsor of the past two International Congresses and will be a sponsor of the Brisbane Congress.
Above: Travelling the canals
Below: Canal houses. The roolines of the houses indicate the differences in architectural style.
Many of the delegates visited other important cultural tourist attractions in Amsterdam, particularly the State Museum and the Van Gogh Museum. Robin Cooke paid a nostalgic
visit to the Tropen Institute (The Institute of Tropical Medicine). He was first introduced to this institution by Professor Rolf ten Seldam, the Foundation Professor of Pathology in Perth
. In his early days, Rolf worked in Indonesia and became an international expert in Tropical Medicine. The Tropen Institute was the centre of Dutch interest in Tropical Diseases in the
late 1800's and early 1900's when Holland had an empire in tropical countries around the world, and when Tropical Medicine was a "glamour" speciality with so much being
discovered about infectious diseases at that time.
Through Rolf's contacts, Robin delivered a special lecture at the Tropen Institute in 1976. In those days it was still an active centre for research and training in Tropical Diseases. It was
a grand building with an ornately decorated entrance foyer, which was rather like the entrance to an opera house. The main lecture theatre is still used for lectures of all sorts,
but the remainder of the building is now occupied by administrative offices and the research and teaching functions have been disseminated to other institutions. Each year the
European Association of Pathology conducts examinations for a Diploma which is recognised as a specialist qualification in all of the European Union countries. The
examination for 2003 was held on the day before the Congress started. There were 28 candidates and Robin Cooke assisted with some pre-examination tutorials.
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Australasian Division of the
