This year we're excited to be able to bring delegates a series of new events and programme highlights designed to increase networking, provide information and contacts for new members and early career researchers and clinicians and enable everyone to influence how the WMS operates.
This will be held on Thursday 5th October 2023, 13:45-14:45 in Ballroom C1
Whether you're a new member, a student, an early career researcher or clinician, someone who's experienced in the field of neuromuscular disorders and wants to share the knowledge you have gained with those who are just starting out, or you are just looking for wisdom and some time out to think about careers and strategies, we invite you to join our Career Development Workshop.
This will be a facilitated Q&A panel discussion around all things career-related: mentoring, barriers faced, opportunites, applying for positions and grants, balancing work and life, collaborations, networking and more.
Our experienced panel will be on hand to answer questions and guide discussions to help you get the most out of the session.
More information about how to sign up for the sessions will be available soon.
The WMS provides grants of up to £500 GBP to assist WMS member in-person attendees who have costs associated with the care of themselves/a dependent/s during the congress.
Eligible dependents are defined as the following:
WMS members can apply for a grant no later than 8th September 2023. All applicants will be notified no later than 15th September 2023.
Find full information on the Caregiver Grants page of our website.
We launched the WMS Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) survey earlier this summer and decided to keep it open through the Congress to enable all delegates to respond.
You can find the EDI survey using this link. We appreciate your feedback as we work to make the WMS welcoming to people from all cultures and backgrounds.
We are pleased to provide a dedicated family-friendly room (Room 5 on the second floor) in the Congress Centre for attendees with young children who will be in attendance. This room will have child-friendly snacks and activities including an arts & crafts table, age-appropriate games, and an assortment of small books and toys. Children and families are welcome to use and share items within the room as needed. We do ask that all entertainment items please remain in the space for other children and families to use throughout the Congress.
The Congress virtual platform will be live-streamed into the space so WMS attendees with families can experience the Congress content while also spending needed time with family members.
Please note that children are not permitted within the rest of the congress spaces or events please.
If you are travelling with children, you can find details of a range of things to do nearby on our Family Friendly Information page.
This year, the WMS 2023 Congress is supporting up to 100 fellowships awarded to help in-person congress attendees who submit an abstract with their travel and accommodation costs.
The Programme Committee selects the recipients based on the quality of the abstracts submitted and the analysis of a brief bio provided during the registration process (including relevant special interest and expertise, details of current position and the importance of the work to be presented).
Applications are now closed. For more information about our expanded categories for 2023, please visit the Fellowships and Prizes page of the website.
To support early career researchers and clinicians as you raise your professional profile, we have added two headshot sessions to the programme:
Tuesday 3rd Ocober, 15:30-16:15
Wednesday 4th October, 13:15-14:15
These sessions will take place in the media room - Meeting Room 2. Come along to either of these sessions (no need to pre-book) for a professional profile photo that you'll be able to use for presentations, programmes, profiles and more.
This will be held on Friday 6th October 2023, 07:30-08:30.
Those who have attended the Pre-Congress Teaching Course will have found this part of the course particularly interesting. This year we are introducing an additional session in the Congress Programme with the aim of using our combined, global knowledge in our field to solve difficult, unusual or as yet unsolved cases. Attendees are invited to send in case presentations for discussion on Friday 6th October 07:30-08:30. Please prepare a maximum of five PowerPoint slides, with a maximum of five minutes total presentation time and send them to Speaker Manager speaker@worldmusclesociety.org by midnight (Congress time) on Wednesday 4th October. See here for more information about how to prepare your slides. This is a great opportunity for junior members to present a case to their colleagues.
As an alternative to offering congress bags and gifts this year, we have launched a new initiative that aims to enhance the congress’s impact on the local community. Each delegate will receive a biodegradable token along with their name badge, which they can deposit into a voting box to indicate their preferred charity. WMS 2023 has pledged £10,000 to three Charleston, South Carolina based charities:
All delegates will have the opportunity to vote for their preferred charity by depositing their token in the dedicated collection bins throughout the Congress. At the end of the event, we'll count up how many votes there are for each charity and distribute the £10,000 accordingly.
With members and non-members attending WMS 2023 from all over the world, we want to make sure people of all faiths have a quiet space to observe their rituals and prayers. The Multi-Faith Room is meeting room 6, upstairs in the Congress Venue. You can check the location on the Congress Floor Plan. This is the first time we have provided a Multi-Faith Room at a WMS Congress. If there are additional provisions we can make to ensure the room meets your needs, please let a member of the Congress team know.
WMS members may already be aware of our bi-monthly virtual networking events. For WMS 2023, we’re bringing the virtual into the real world.
Thoughout the Congress, we will have a series of Café sessions dedicated to different disucssion topics. You'll have the opportunity to meet some of our committees and influence what they focus on over the coming months. You'll get to meet colleages from around the world to discuss the latest advances in the field of neuromuscular disorders. And you'll get to sit in a comfortable and modern coffee bar and enjoy your favourite barista-made beverage.
The events schedule for the Myology Café is as follows:
This will be held on Wednesday 4th October 2023, 13:45-14:15.
One of our dedicated Myology Café sessions will be our New Members' Event. If you're new to the WMS - or want to meet some of our new members - come along to the Myology Cafe for this session. We'll have previous year prizewinners and some of the most experienced clinicians and researchers on hand to welcome you, share how to make the most of your membership and listen to what you want from the WMS.
We have created a registration package for Patient Advocacy Groups. The package includes up to two registration tickets for the scientific representatives of the organisation and a table in the exhibition area to engage with delegates and raise awareness. The group will also be showcased alongside the exhibitors in the congress floorplan, virtual portal and app.
Congresses are full of opportunities to learn and experience new things, but they are also rich in stimulation, and with the constant outward facing and switched on nature they can also be overwhelming, exhausting and triggering, both mentally and physically.
We will have a dedicated quiet space which we are calling our Quiet Room in Room 4, on the second floor of the Congress Centre (it will be signposted in the venue) where you can take some quiet time to reground before returning to the congress activities. No devices, talking, eating or food will be allowed so that the space is truly welcoming and calming for all please.
For more information about all our wellbeing activities, please visit the Wellbeing page of our website.
Whether you're joining the Congress virtually or attending in-person, we want to make sure you understand what's being said. For this Congress, we are trialling a live translation service, called Wordly. You'll be able to translate from the English of the presentations to your first language. We'll be working in the background to make sure the translation is as accurate as possible, but as this is our first time, please share any feedback you have on how well it works for you.
