THE NINTH IMSA
NATIONAL CONVENTION
Marriott Troy/Detroit, Michigan
2011 IMSA Convention: At a Glance
On behalf of the board of directors and staff, it gives me great pleasure to communicate with you soon after an extremely successful convention in Troy, Michigan. Those who attended had a great time, lots of great memories, good food, and great company, excellent CME program, and quality family time.
For those who did not make it, soon on our website we hope to share with you through slide presentations, video clips, TV recordings (two stations recorded our convention live) as well as other media coverage.
We wanted to communicate to you a a synopsis of that convention:
- About 130 members signed up for the scientific program (exceeding San Francisco by a few!!
- Approximately 250 attended the Friday reception.
- Approximately 225 attended the Saturday celebration lunch.
- Over 350 attended and enjoyed The Saturday Gala, all dressed up for the occasion, the entertainment by Rafid Sawa, his band as well as Sawsan Kizy contributed to a memorable evening.
- Approximately 300 were present at the Sunday Iraqi authentic brunch at the Shenandoah Club. The food was sumptuous, and the cultural program was amazing. The displays and exhibits were truly appreciated by all….
- The Sunday (Chalghi) authentic Iraqi dinner with entertainment by Abbas Al-Attar and his group was enjoyed by over 250 individuals (standing room only!!!) not to mention the delicious Iraqi dinner.
- Monday morning ”farewell breakfast” honoring our youth was attended by about 50 individuals, but most importantly did include a new item for us which is as spontaneous panel discussion by our youth, represented by four individuals ages 13-19 in response to moderated questions from the audience and truly discussed some very important issues that our youth face, including competitiveness, cultural commonalities, career aspirations, etc. Something we want to build on in the future.
- Our CME program was outstanding with 14 presentations of great interest to our range of medical audience attendees.
- We had about a dozen organizations present that share similar goals and values including some of our humanitarian activities to help Iraq and Iraqi people, their contributions were very much valued through the program.
- Networking bridges were strengthened with a variety of organizations including NAAMA, ISP, AMAR, IRAP, Wired international to mention a few.
- Fundraising reached the highest milestone ever in the history of our organization close to $50,000 that will be allocated to different humanitarian project were working on in supporting; We thank all of our members for their generosity; those of you who would like to contribute please do so through our website or by sending a check to our organization’s mailing address. We commit to continuing our strides for helping in that direction.
- The support we received from exhibitors was overwhelming, more than 23 booths during the CME program, and about 20 vendors during the cultural exhibits!!!
- We are happy to report that a long-standing goal of developing a membership directory is in process, please watch your correspondence and cooperate in a timely fashion as we hope to conclude that project soon…
- More than 30 trophies and awards were distributed for our CME presenters, lifetime achievement awards, humanitarian citizens awards, and several other individuals that supported and contributed to our program, just a small way to say THANK YOU for their contribution.
- Great reunions, as well as new friendships, established not just among our members but Family members including children, truly a family-friendly environment.
- Last but not least I want to inform you that our team worked fabulously together to contribute to such a success, our board of directors, had visited staff, officers and others, THANK YOU.
- Please watch our correspondence in the coming couple of months as we announced our 2012 plans and location for our convention, please plan on attending, meanwhile do enjoy following our website with pictures, news, and other developments.