Congress > Warsaw 2008

Warsaw 2008 - 17th Annual Scientific Meeting

To read information about the EAO Congress in Warsaw, click here.

Dr Paul Stone, EAO President Elect

"This year the EAO congress took place in Poland, visiting Eastern Europe for the first time in its history. Over 2,500 people from 65 different countries experienced three days of science and education at the stunning Palace of Culture and Science in the centre of Warsaw.

The EAO’s annual congress has always moved to different countries, and this year the board added Poland to the list of cities which have hosted this major meeting. The hugely successful event was organised in conjunction with the National Polish Implantology Association (OSIS) and its President Dr Andrzej Wojtowicz. 

Delegates from all over the world heard presentations delivered in multiple parallel sessions by a faculty of over 120. The theme of this year’s congress was ‘Clinical advances and predictability with oral implants’, and the feedback suggested that the standard of presentations was even higher than in Barcelona last year. 

The co-chairs, Dr David Harris and Dr Andrzej Wojtowicz, were joined by EAO President Professor Friedrich Neukam for the opening ceremony in the ornate main auditorium. This featured a lecture by the Polish astrophysicist Alexander Wolszczan. 

Once again the number of attendees exceeded expectations, with many delegates travelling great distances to the event. Both South Korea and Japan featured strongly, but there were also more than 40 delegates from each of Thailand, Brazil and the USA. Clinicians travelled from as far away as China, Hong Kong, Nepal, New Zealand and Australia, underlining the global influence of the EAO.

444 abstracts were submitted, and the abstract committee, chaired by Professor Christoph Hämmerle, accepted 366 of these. 327 were displayed as posters, which stretched for long distances all over the congress centre, carefully divided into subject categories for ease of viewing. 39 of the abstracts were selected as oral presentations – 18 for the research competition (clinical and basic categories), and 21 for the two sessions of ‘short oral communications’. Bernd Stadlinger of Germany won the basic research award (receiving a price of 2,000€), while the clinical research award was shared by Luigi Canullo of Germany and Georg D Strbac of Austria, each of whom received 1,000€.

The congress was complemented by a large trade exhibition featuring over 71 exhibitors. Nine companies hosted satellite symposia, and over 30 respected speakers highlighted the developments being made by different companies. Many hundreds of delegates registered to attend these very popular events."