This year’s annual meeting of the Australasian Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (AUSCRS) will be held at Macquarie Conference Centre, Peppers (previously known as the Outrigger), Noosa from Wednesday 17 October to Saturday 20 October.
Since its beginnings in 1996, AUSCRS has been the only local Australian and New Zealand annual meeting devoted to cataract and refractive surgery. Despite this, it remains poorly attended by New Zealand ophthalmologists many of whom are refractive surgeons and almost all of us are cataract surgeons. I’d like to encourage more attendance at our local meeting by New Zealand-based ophthalmologists many of whom would find this a useful and very enjoyable meeting to attend.
AUSCRS is a much less formal meeting than either the American or European cataract and refractive surgery meetings. Dress has always been casual with no jackets, suits or ties and the meeting has always intentionally been held at “resort" destinations in Australia and New Zealand, making it very “family friendly” to attend. The relaxed and friendly atmosphere, is also more than complemented by the high calibre of speakers drawn from across the world and locally.
There’s lots of discussion and debate, and plenty of opportunity to freely discuss topics with both internationally-renowned and local experts, truly unrivalled by similar meetings. Another annual AUSCRS highlight and tradition is the imaginative themes and formats of the sessions, with local and international speakers often dressing up in entertaining costumes, sometimes bordering on the bizarre. It has been very entertaining over the years to see world-renowned ophthalmologists dressed up in amusing costumes debating often quite controversial topics.
Some New Zealand ophthalmologists appear to be put off attending AUSCRS because of a perception the meeting is largely for refractive surgeons. This has never been the case and most of the meeting remains primarily concentrated on advances in cataract surgery. So any New Zealand ophthalmologist who performs cataract surgery would also find AUSCRS a very useful meeting to attend.
