WHY I DECIDED TO ATTEND WCPT (World Confederation of Physical Therapy) CONGRESS, 2015, Singapore

I decided to attend WCPT (World Confederation of Physical Therapy) 2015 Congress on May 1 to 4, which will be held at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre. http://www.wcpt.org/congress This congress is held four yearly since 1963 at London, UK and the last 2011 WCPT congress was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This time in Singapore is coming across with 25 focused symposia, 33 networking sessions, 11 discussion panels and debates, over 15 seminars and the presentation of more than 2,000 abstracts planned over the three days, the scientific programme has been designed to showcase the best in physical therapy research, education, practice and service delivery across the breadth of the profession.

Taking part in this huge event has become one of my priorities since two years ago, As a PhD student, networking in the professional field is really important in order to provide information about myself and gather information about other professionals and potential opportunities. Hopefully in less than one year I will be promoted to PhD candidate, so I think it’s time to bridge the gaps between academia and industry which has many added benefits.

I just built my personal itinerary for my days at congress based on my interested field, everyone who planned to attend congress have their own track to join the congress. Obviously there are 48 topics area including critical health, mental health, global health, oncology & palliative care, robotics & technology and women’s health so no one can access all during three days. I made my own track for education, clinical education, EBP, method of teaching & learning, research methodology and continue professional development. As a side interest, I chose three more area; critical care, acupuncture and global health because these are the currently contemporary topics across the world. To cover these all topics I chose, I have to access 4 poster displays, 3 poster walks, 2 classic platforms, 1 art platform, 4 networking sessions and 2 panels and debates during one full day and two half days. According to my own program I could narrow down the research articles to 60 out of 2000 research papers, all of these papers’ abstract will be published on April 24. Now I am preparing everything for enjoying WCPT and already contacted with some of experts and researchers to discuss their works and ofcourse before travelling, reviewing 60 article abstracts in few days is tremendous amount of work but I am sure it’ll worth trying hard.

And also I am accepted for 10 hours (2 shifts) volunteering (roles of volunteer is varying including office assistant, registration assistant, poster assistant, exhibit hall assistant and in many other areas) in room monitoring for scientific programs and assisting to set up and tear down for posters. I applied to be a volunteer since last year because I want to contribute something I can to WCPT and work with such a huge and great team. Actually they don’t accept volunteers from outside of Singapore but the WCPT organizers are very kind and giving chances to youth generation. There are two more events for me as volunteer: volunteer orientation and volunteer thank you event. Apart from WCPT congress activities, we, APTSA (Asia Physical Therapy Student Association) executive members holding informal meeting and having fun together.

By the way, I tried and struggled to make it possible by my own  As long as I don’t have plan to present my work or my thesis, I am not eligible to apply scholarship for the congress from my University and other institutions.

I AM EXTEREMLY EXCITED TO BE A PART OF WCPT!!!