The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7204 p932
29 June 2002

Conference brochure and booking forms now available

Booking forms are now available for this year's British Pharmaceutical Conference, which takes place at the Manchester International Convention Centre from Monday 23 September to Wednesday 25 September. Online booking is also available.

The booking form is included in a 12-page brochure which sets out the conference programme in detail. The brochure has been widely distributed to pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists and is accompanied by an accommodation booking form. Anyone interested in the conference who has not received the brochure can obtain one from Health Links, Windsor House, 11a High Street, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7BB (tel 0121 248 3399; fax 0121 248 3390; e-mail alyons@health-links.fsnet.co.uk). The brochure information has also been added to the Health Links website.

The conference has an overall theme of "The generation game: creating a healthy future" and each day has its own theme, based on health care issues for older people. The focus for the Monday sessions, which are sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, will be on diabetes, impaired immunity and ophthalmic disorders. The theme for the Tuesday sessions, sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme, will be musculoskeletal disorders. The Wednesday focus will be on neurodegenerative disease and mental health.

The science programme, produced in conjunction with the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, will feature developments in pharmaceutical sciences, drawing on specialist groups and research organisations. It will include ageing research, pharmacology, biotechnology, drug delivery, medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical analysis, biomedical engineering and microbiology. The programme for pharmacists in practice will examine the major challenges that an ageing population and the NHS modernisation agenda present to pharmacists in the delivery of health care. The conference programme also includes social events (on the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings), fringe events and an exhibition.

For those who book by 1 August, the full three-day conference fee is £425+VAT, reduced to £350+VAT for presenters and for members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (or the other organisations involved in arranging the science programme). Bona fide students pay £80+VAT. Registration covers entrance to all conference sessions, the exhibition and a welcome reception on the Sunday evening. It does not cover accommodation or other social events. One-day fees are also available. All fees increase by at least 20 per cent after August 1.

The brochure wrongly says that online conference and accommodation bookings can be made at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's website. In fact, online conference booking is being handled by Health Links through its own website, which has a link to online accommodation booking through Procon Conferences Ltd. However, links to both these facilities have also been added to the BPC section of the Society's website.