One Year Since World Congress in Buenos Aires

The year 2012 was an extraordinary one if you were an anesthesiologist or an athlete. Every four years the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists (WCA), which is run by the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA), takes place in the same year as the Olympic Games, which are run by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It is interesting to compare the two events. Both events are organized by a local country after a bidding contest, but both remain under the overall control of the parent organization (a factor that can be overlooked by the organizing committee on some occasions!). It would appear that the bidding process to win the opportunity to organize the event is very different between the two cases. For the WFSA, we have a Venue Committee staffed by senior anesthetists, all of whom have run major meetings; none of them are from countries who are applying,...