2014 World Congress
Hemophilia 2014 for Melbourne, Australia
Haemophilia Foundation Australia is delighted to announce that on 15 July 2010 the members of the World Federation of Hemophilia General Assembly voted that Melbourne will be the host city for the 2014 World Hemophilia Congress.
International Congresses of World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) are not only the most valuable multidisciplinary education meetings for the worldwide bleeding disorders community, they are also one of the most important ways for WFH to generate funds for programs and services around the world. This is especially important for revenue to support advocacy and development programs to increase access to care and treatment in the developing world.
WFH has developed a successful model for running congresses “inhouse” with its team of highly skilled and experienced congress organisers and the location of each Congress is decided by National Member Organisations (NMOs) at a vote at the WFH General Assembly several years before. The host NMO then works closely with WFH to develop the Congress program and associated activities.
The WFH Congress has never been held in Australia. HFA was greeted with enthusiastic support from member Foundations, health professionals, industry and government organisations around Australia when it explored the feasibility of bidding for the Congress in 2014.
HFA expressed interest to WFH and was advised in June 2009 that it had advanced in the process along with USA, Syria, Malaysia, Mexico and Vietnam. HFA commenced a national bid selection process to seek the most suitable venue and partners to work with HFA on the bid. We selected Melbourne which has a state of the art, recently opened convention centre which meets WFH criteria for a suitable venue. Our plan was to put a choice to WFH which meets the most important elements of a congress to be inclusive, accessible and affordable for participants, and importantly a profitable congress for WFH. We believe our bid offers an option which will be great for the worldwide bleeding disorders community as well as the Asia Pacific region and the bleeding disorders community of Australia. The bid is backed up with guaranteed government support and expert advice and services.
The field was narrowed down to just two countries, and in July this year in Buenos Aires, all WFH National Member Organisations voted for the 2014 Congress to be held in either Miami, USA or Melbourne, Australia. Each option was considered carefully by NMOs and we were very pleased that Melbourne was chosen by the majority.
The 2012 World Congress will be held in Paris, France.
We appreciate the efforts of individual members, health professionals, governments and industry from around Australia who supported our Australian bid and those who helped with our lobbying efforts ahead of the decision made by NMOs in July.