Welcome

Dear Colleagues,

In light of the current evidence, our Executive Committee has decided reluctantly to postpone our upcoming annual congress to next year.

Sorting out a unanimous decision does not always mean it was effortless and smooth. As you may closely following, we have long waited and surveyed the progression of the pandemic while almost all the large-scale organizations have been cancelled or postponed. All the simulations we have conducted, and all possible scenarios have failed, ending up to an unacceptably high risk of transmission. We believe there is no valid argument to controvert the safety and the health of our participants.

Despite the gradual lifting of the confinement measures, we were not in favour of a meeting shadowed by protective measures and social distancing. Firstly, the preventive attitude does not comply with our members’ warmth and cordiality. Moreover, in a world where everybody is connected to each other online, ‘social nearing’ is the main reason for which we keep on organizing congresses.

I can readily assure you that our society is perfectly competent to manage this crisis to all extend. At this point, I must present my gratitude to the organization committee of Poznan Congress for their unprecedented efforts, to all the members of the Executive Committee and to Torres-Pardo, our organization consultant for the outstanding management of this disastrous situation.
Similar to other international societies SECEC also introduces the organization of an outstanding virtual scientific activity. Our Executive Committee members have completed the final arrangements, with an ambition of creating the most prominent online activity in 2020, devoted to Shoulder and Elbow Surgery. We are planning to launch SECEC Virtual Congress on 9 September, same as the actual congress but to extend it dynamically to a broader interval of time.

A very high percentage of SECEC abstracts find their ways to high impact journals in the next years and we know how significant it is to present a paper on a SECEC Podium, which we desperately cannot build this year. As promised, I announce that the accepted abstracts will be published on JSES-Open Access upon the request of the authors, however, it would be totally recognizable if any author requests the withdrawal of his/her submission.

Consequently, SECEC has decided to stay home, to be able to come together freely in 2021, same time, same day, same place. We believe that Poznan and Eastern Europe have definitely deserved to hold this congress, and our members will experience an exceptional congress worthy of the brilliant efforts of the organizing committee headed by Przemyslaw Lubiatowski. Therefore, Dublin Congress has been moved to 2023, in order not to clash with ICSES Rome 2022.

At this stage, I wish to express my solidarity and compassion for all those who suffer from the disease and its consequences. We all acknowledged that the best way to defeat this calamity is to stay home. Social distancing becomes painful when there are so many reasons for hugging each other, let’s just remember that next year in Poznan.

Mehmet Demirhan
SECEC President