Welcome
It is a great honour and pleasure to organize in Torino the 19th EAES Congress. In 2011 we will celebrate the 150° anniversary of the birth of the Italian nation: in 1861 Vittorio Emanuele II di Savoia became the first king of Italy and Torino the first capital. The EAES Congress has been included among the official events that will celebrate this important anniversary. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Abe Fingerhut, EAES President, and to all the members of the EAES Executive Board for the privilege of hosting EAES in my hometown.
Torino will surprise you with its architecture dating from Roman times to elegant baroque , its 18 km of porticoes, the Egyptian Museum, the Mole Antoneliana hiding the National Museum of Cinema, the Castello di Rivoli hosting the richest Contemporary Art Collection in Italy, the Duomo with its beautiful Guarini chapel guarding the Holy Shroud …. But Torino is also the capital of chocolate, wine and truffles, historical cafés and the town of Fiat, Juventus and more recently Eataly, the Slow Food movement sanctuary.
The former Lingotto Fiat factory transformed into a modern Congress Center by the famous architect Renzo Piano will host our Congress.
In 2010, Minimal Invasive Surgery and EAES entered their adulthood with the 18th Congress held in Geneva. Torino will represent a new step forward: each year we have technical , technological and clinical improvements. The pursuit of a reduced surgical trauma together with maximal clinical efficacy is the main goal of our daily research activity.
"... the present now / will later be past …. for the times they are a-changing"
These words by Bob Dylan perfectly resume not only the revolution represented by laparoscopic surgery in the last years of the past century but also the present of minimal invasive surgery projected into the future with single port, robots, fast track and may be Notes surgery on the horizon. This is the reason why I chose this song as the theme of the 19th EAES Congress: the times they are a-changing!
Furthermore, this Congress will represent a new format trying to establish and strengthen important relationships between EAES and other surgical societies. The Italian Society of Endoscopic Surgery (SICE) has decided not to hold a separate congress and to celebrate the presence of EAES in Torino merging the 2011 national congress with the 19th EAES congress: 8 sessions and a Consensus Conference on emergency will be organized jointly by EAES and SICE. Furthermore, there will be a joint session EAES-ESSO, the European Society of Surgical Oncology and a joint session with the European Association of Young Surgeons.
Last but not least, this 19th EAES Congress will tribute a special attention to our Asian colleagues. The 2nd meeting of Euro-Asian Colorectal Surgeons will take place in Torino during the days of the EAES congress and the most prominent Asian surgeons will be involved in our meeting and present their latest researches and results.
Old Europe will exchange ideas with the fastest growing countries in the world….the times they are a-changing!
Prof. Mario Morino
EAES President