The 2005 World Congress on Huntington's
Disease
will take place September 10-13, 2005
at the Crowne Plaza Midland Hotel
in Manchester, England.
________________________
The
2005 IHA Meeting will take place
September 13-15, 2005
at the Chancellors Hotel and Conference Centre,
The University of Manchester,
Rusholme, Manchester, England
The Congress will begin in the afternoon/evening
of Saturday, September 10
and finish at lunchtime on Tuesday, September 13.
The IHA meeting will
re-convene in the late afternoon of the September
13 and finish in the
afternoon of Thursday, September 15.
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September
22, 2003
Dear
World Congress on Huntington's Disease Registrant:
As
you know the Toronto Marriott Eaton Centre Hotel was booked
to host the World Congress on Huntington's Disease (WCHD),
August 16 - 19, 2003, in Toronto. Nearly 300 scientists and
representatives from Huntington organizations worldwide were
registered to participate.
On
Thursday August 14, at about 4:15 pm, all electric power was
lost in the province of Ontario and throughout much of the
northeastern United States. Power was only partially restored
by Friday afternoon, August 15, when the general manager of
the Marriott Hotel called and advised us that they were canceling
our meeting due to the occurrence and persisting threats of
rolling blackouts in Toronto and their inability to ensure
the safety and comfort of hotel guests. We tried earnestly
to find another venue for the conference, but none of the
downtown hotels were prepared to accommodate a conference
of 300 people, because they also were threatened by rolling
blackouts.
We
were forced into the difficult decision of postponing the
WCHD meeting. Under constraints of limited electric power,
we immediately called and emailed those registered for the
Congress to advise them not to come to Toronto. However, many
registrants from Europe, Asia, and Australia were already
en route. By the end of the day on Saturday, August 16, a
total of 95 registrants had arrived in Toronto but were unable
to depart on return flights out of Toronto. This substantial
sub-group of WCHD registrants decided to organize an impromptu
mini-conference, involving the scientists and others who were
in attendance.
The
International (Ryerson) Conference Centre, which had been
booked to host the meetings of the International Huntington
Association following the WCHD, was prepared to accommodate
meetings of up to 100 people and agreed to host the mini-conference.
Under the continued threat of blackouts and with limited power
for audio-visual aid, informative and inspirational scientific
presentations and informal planning meetings were held Sunday,
August 17 through Wednesday, August 20. As conceived for the
WCHD, the format for the mini-conference involved scientific
updates, plain language and interactive discussion. We are
most grateful to the scientists, clinicians and members of
the HD organizations who fashioned together the WCHD 2003
mini-conference and what turned out to be a valuable experience
for those in attendance.
Next
Steps
The
WCHD Organizing Committee has since convened twice and decided
that it is not feasible to re-schedule WCHD 2003 in North
America as it was originally structured. Instead, it was decided
that the experience and resources gained from WCHD 2003 and
the mini-conference would best be applied to the next WCHD,
now set to take place September 10-13, 2005, in Manchester,
England, with the IHA Conference following September 13-15,
2005. Dr David Craufurd from Manchester has agreed to chair
the WCHD 2005 Organizing Committee.
Finances
Although
cancellation of WCHD 2003 was completely unforeseen and beyond
our control, the Organizing Committee is committed to ensuring
that registrants who did not attend do not lose registration
fees because of the enforced cancellation. We offer two options:
-
Registrants can choose to apply their registration fees
to WCHD 2005 so that those who attend in 2005 will have
advance registration fully paid up. The registration fees
for WCHD 2005 have not been set, but WCHD 2003 registrants
who apply registration as advance payment for 2005 will
not be charged any additional amount.
- Registrants
may choose to have their WCHD 2003 registration fees refunded
to them. We will attempt to accommodate refund requests
in a timely fashion. Please go to the Registration
Fee Instructions, print the page, and return
it (by fax or mail) to the Huntington Society of Canada.
Program
booklets for WCHD 2003, containing the abstracts of all of
the scheduled speakers and poster presentations, will be mailed
to all who registered for the Congress, along with Congress
tote bags. A reply form with information directing the organizers
on how to process the WCHD 2003 registration fees will be
included with the mailed program material.
The
Marriott has agreed to waive all cancellation fees for lodging
and meeting room reservations for WCHD 2003. We suggest you
check with your airline regarding travel expenses. We recognize
that some registrants may have incurred non-refundable travel
expenses because of the unforeseeable and uncontrollable events
and circumstances that forced cancellation of WCHD 2003. We
hope you understand that we will not be able to secure funds
to offset such travel expenses.
WCHD
2005
The experience in organizing WCHD 2003 and the impromptu mini-conference
that ensued confirmed our vision that a scientific program,
featuring presentations and discussion of current HD research
for a worldwide audience of scientists, clinicians and the
HD community can be a success, valued by the participants.
We trust that WCHD 2005 will more fully realize this vision
for all participants September 10-15, 2005, in Manchester,
England.
Sincerely
yours,
ON BEHALF OF THE ORGANIZING PARTNERS
Isla
Horvath, Chair
WCHD 2003 Organizing Committee
Ira Shoulson, Chair
WCHD 2003 Program Committee
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