Get ready for Brisbane

It comes to that time of year when our minds must turn again to the two pinnacle events on the calendar of the Australian Medical Students’ Association—the AMSA Global Health Conference (GHC) and the AMSA National Convention.

This year's events are to be hosted in sunny Brisbane by our highly talented Queensland colleagues.

The week of festivities of will kick off at the University of Queensland with the 5th annual GHC running from 2 to 5 July.

Following the huge successes of the 2008 Melbourne GHC, which sold out 500 tickets in nine minutes, GHC09 promises to be the most challenging and inspiring Global Health event yet. GHC09 will run an extra day in 2009, totally dedicated to getting your hands on with an array of exciting workshop “field simulations”.

From the Sunday our focus returns from abroad to our own backyard for AMSA’s 50th Annual Convention which will be held from 5 July to 12 July.

Medical students from all of Australia’s 19 medical schools will be “Shaking it Up” to the tune of an invigorating academic program sporting some of our nations greatest medical minds in areas such as ‘Technology and the 21st Century” and “Bioethics and Stem-Cells”.

The tune will take on a different melody by night as delegates gear up for a week of stunning social extravaganzas.

Victoria has traditionally been extremely well represented at both events. After the huge successes of ’09 where Melbourne and Monash Universities successfully hosted both events, the invasion of Brisbane by the MDM (Monash/Deakin/Melbourne) triad is much anticipated.

Registration this year will take on different look with a national ballot system being employed.

Delegates will be asked to register their interest in each event within a five day period;

Following this, students will be picked at random and offered a spot. This is not a “first in, best dressed” system. This mode of registration comes in light of a number of past difficulties both events have had in registering such large numbers of students and will prove to be the most equitable mechanism in terms of access in doing so.

For more information on this year’s events visit the two websites, www.amsa.org.au/ghc09 and www.amsa.org.au/convention09 .

Daniel Yore
Senior AMSA Representative 2009
Monash University Medical Undergraduates Society