2012 will be remembered for many anniversaries - the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens, the 100th anniversary of the Titanic tragedy, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the British Olympics, and of course the Ruby anniversary of the British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes.
It is a special year for paediatrics in Leeds too, as we officially opened the Leeds Children's Hospital in the spring, and we are proud to be hosting this prestigious meeting in Yorkshire's capital city. We have planned a diverse, informative and entertaining programme of events in the city which brought the world the likes of Peter O'Toole, Alan Bennett, Jane Tomlinson andHarry Ramsden (of fish and chips fame!).
There is a little change from our traditional programme this year. We will start the CME meeting as usual on day one, the topics covered this year concentrating on pituitary and thyroid disorders. The following day the endocrine programme will focus on themes of genes, gender identity and, in the spirit of Olympic year, the impact of sport on health and disease. There will, as always, be opportunities for oral and poster presentation of new research, and a parallel endocrine nurse specialist session, but in response to feedback from our members, we are this year holding a single, fully integrated diabetes day with speakers from all disciplines - nursing, psychology and dietetics as well as paediatric and adult medicine-rather than parallel medical and nursing sessions. We have a list of nationally and internationally renowned speakers, and we aim to deliver a first class programme with talks to please all diabetes professionals, closing the meeting with a keynote lecture from one of the most renowned British diabetologists of our time.