The meeting will be four days. One day will be devoted to Medical Retina, one day to Surgical Retina, and a third day to ‘hot topics’, such as AMD or new drugs or surgical techniques. The exact content will not be known until cases and papers are submitted. In addition, depending to the length and the content of the presentations on Medical and Surgical retina days, additional presentation formats are being considered to make this meeting unique.

The primary format will be case presentations. The presentation should be made in 3-4 minutes followed by a 6 minute discussion (no more than six presentations per hour). Infomercials will not be tolerated. We ask those wishing to participate briefly share a case or problem or new technique that they found interesting, or which makes a point, or an outcome that was unexpected, good or bad. We all learn (or should learn) from a complication or a failure. Cases will be accepted on the basis of how well the presentation will stimulate audience participation. Remember, it is audience participation which makes the meeting enjoyable and worthwhile.

The Organizing Committee would like to encourage those participants with special interests and expertise (which might be considered Mentors) the opportunity to present their philosophy or life long experience on a topic for which they have passion. We realize this cannot be accomplished in a 10 minute presentation. Thirty minutes to several hours can be allocated. Examples might be Steve Charles discussing ‘the most important  concepts I know about vitrectomy’, or Jerry or Carol Shields discussing ‘the most important concepts I know about melanoma’, or Sandy Grizzard discussing ‘the most important concepts I know about Pneumatic Retinopexy’, or Claus Eckhart may do the same for vitrectomy or new instruments ; the list goes on and is limited only by the Mentor’s imagination. However, in keeping with the open dialog format, the Mentor must be ready to accept challenges from the forum of Masters.

CME will not be provided. CME is expensive, burdensome, wastes time, and is not required by most countries outside the US. Just add up how much time was wasted at the Joint retina congress in New York City  when each speaker had to say, ‘I have no financial interest bla bla bla.’ Meeting expenses are usually tax deductible, but you should check with your tax adviser.