Member: GUARANT
Country: Czech Republic
Our work on WCA 2021 started in 2012 when, during the Closing Ceremony of WCA 2012 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Venue Committee had chosen Prague, Czech Republic, as the site for WCA 2020. We were happy to have an intensive cooperation with the Czech Society of Anaesthesiology and the Intensive Care Medicine and the World Federation of Anaesthesiologists.
Unfortunately, this congress was also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, so due to the safety of all speakers and participants, the Scientific Committee decided to move it to 2021, then to hybrid and later on to the virtual only form.
Changing the format of the congress to online provided an exciting opportunity to ensure that WCA 2021 was the most accessible gathering of its kind. Without the expense of travelling and accommodation, we were expecting to welcome the largest global community of anaesthesia and perioperative care providers ever assembled for a congress.
The biggest challenge was to provide a good virtual congress platform and to connect it with networking elements so that participants could enjoy the rich scientific programme with workshops, PBLDs, e-Posters and Meet the Experts while meeting friends and colleagues, collaborating, sharing experience and having fun with a truly worldwide network of anaesthesiologists and intensivists. (A Photo Booth was prepared for the participants where they could take a picture of themselves and create the WCA 2021 Mosaic).
The congress also included an attempt to set a World Record in CPR, which took place on 4th September. Thanks to more than 950 participants from 104 countries we managed to break the World Record.
With over 6.000 participants from 130+ countries, we are very happy to say that the congress was a great success.