This is an initial informal question to the community about interest in an openEHR conference / meeting, probably initially located in Europe. Possibly activities:
presentations / papers on commercial & academic projects
technical working design sessions for major upcoming specifications
meetings aimed at making decisions about the running & governance of openEHR, enabling future organisational improvement
professional and academic networking activities
some purely social activities.
purely as an example of a nice location at which social and outdoor activities can take place, Lake Bled in Slovenia has been suggested, of course there are many other wonderful locations. I have heard many requests for a conference over the last few years, so I wonder what the reaction & interest of the community to this suggestion would be.
This is an initial informal question to the community about interest in an openEHR conference / meeting, probably initially located in Europe. Possibly activities:
presentations / papers on commercial & academic projects
technical working design sessions for major upcoming specifications
meetings aimed at making decisions about the running & governance of openEHR, enabling future organisational improvement
professional and academic networking activities
some purely social activities.
purely as an example of a nice location at which social and outdoor activities can take place, Lake Bled in Slovenia has been suggested, of course there are many other wonderful locations. I have heard many requests for a conference over the last few years, so I wonder what the reaction & interest of the community to this suggestion would be.
I guess that the social activities would be quite important for the community and they are hard to organize on airports and train stations. I therefore vote for other locations than airports and train stations.
I forgot to mention: personally I would like it to be an environmentally conscious event (in as much as any conference could be), and one thing I would at least try for is a destination that allow many people to go by train rather than by plane. Sam and I once did London - Maastricht (which by the way is also a good location) on the train in 7.5h (1.5h wait in Brussels) compared to what we calculated as 5h by plane. But we got 6h work done, and 1h drinking Belgian beer. I consider that a successful journey. Of course not much can be done about long haul flying from the US and down-under.
Another priority for me would be the idea that it would not repeat every few months like standards meetings, maybe not even every year (a bi-annual event maybe?) - so we could afford to spend some time together as a community. Also, I would put as much value on the networking and social side of things as on the ‘business of openEHR’ - which means finding a nice destination, one that works perfectly well if people want to have a holiday, with kids, partners etc.
The cost might also be an important consideration for most people, although if it were say every 2 years, it may not matter as much as for standards meetings which just keep happening.
these are just personal thoughts; it could only happen if enough people in the community would sign up to the idea to make it viable.
If it will be Amsterdam, I might throw a party with good food, beer,
wine and non-alcoholic-drinks, I live 10km from Amsterdam, every hour
four trains to the village I live.
But I agree with other possibilities too, if it is not too far from
Amsterdam, within Europe is OK for me (best near a town).
Having something like this just before or just following an existing
health informatics related conference in the same or very nearby
location; saves time and money as well as possibly attracting new
attendees.
I agree with Tim, better is to combine our event with another already existing, like EFMI? And also to offer access through web and/or video conference. For them, like us from South America who won´t be able to travel to Europe.
Cheers
Jussara
good idea to have a meeting point for people with interest in openEHR.
EFMI STC 2010 Conference (http://www.sky.is/efmi-stc-2010-.html) this year will take place in Reykjavík, June 2-4.
With a theme excellently fitting: Seamless care - safe care. The challenges of interoperability and patient safety in health care.
If Iceland is appropriate for the planned event has to be discussed. I could imagine that in spring one finds a stimulating environment there. On the other hand, travelling there is not as easy as reaching to other places already mentioned.
The main EFMI conference is paused next year as the MedInfo takes place in 2010.
Dr. med. Christophe BRON
Chief Medical Officer
Emergency Medical Care, a member of the AXA group
At the Riverside Clinic
21, Harbour Road
Port Harcourt, Nigeria
