Nicolien van der Poel, Doctor of Medicine, Department of Otolaryngology Universitair Ziekenhuis Antwerpen (UZA), Belgium.
In 2018, after the virtual ESPO Marseille meeting, a new committee of ESPO Juniors was established. Last year, the name was changed to Young ESPO – following Young IFOS and Young CEORL. The goal is unchanged, connecting young ENT surgeons from different nations with a special interest in paediatric ENT, sharing information on fellowships and disseminating learning opportunities. The focus is on young ENT doctors (under 45), but our motto is 'it's not about the number', and connecting young and experienced ENT doctors across different countries is also a valuable achievement.
Ahead of the congress in Liverpool, Young ESPO was actively involved in congress organisation in multiple threads. Young ESPO organised and led breakfast sessions and curated an ENT emergencies session. It also assisted with an Innovation and Education and Simulation stream. In addition, a Young ESPO social programme was put together including our sold-out Networking Cocktail night. We are very pleased that both Young ESPO's contributions to the scientific programme, as well as the social programme were a great success. The opportunity for involvement and connection of international young colleagues and not so young colleagues enhanced the event for our members.
For the coming two years, we are looking forward to the congress of 2025 in Stuttgart and hope we will again get the opportunity to have Young ESPO led sessions and a networking programme. The WikiESPO platform, as initiated by our outgoing president, Francois Simon, is one of the main goals to develop in the meantime. We aim to establish a platform to make it easier to keep in contact with young colleagues, besides our social media channels.
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Take a sneak preview on our WikiESPO. More content will be available soon and you are still invited to contribute.
