CTICC's 2011 conference win to bring underwater medicine into focus

An announcement on the win was made at the 2008 congress or the organisation which took place in Beijing, China this week. South Africa bid against Argentina, Canada and Sweden.

Hyperbaric medicine, known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is the medical use of oxygen at a higher than atmospheric pressure. It is an area of medicine that is advancing rapidly and the University of Stellenbosch is a leading trainer in the field.

Ken Brown, director of African Conferences and Incentives, attended the Beijing conference with Dr Franz Cronje, director of the HBOT unit at the Eugene Marais Hospital in Pretoria. Brown said he was delighted that the South African bid proposal had been successful and that the prestigious conference would be coming to South Africa from 16 to 19 March, 2011.

Dirk Elzinga, managing director of the CTICC, said that winning the 2011 conference, which would bring 500 specialists in the field to Cape Town, was a major coup for the city.

“The ICHM Conference has never been in Africa before and Cape Town's win sets an important precedent,” said Elzinga. “This congress will have a large exhibition component and together will present significant opportunities for local business and tourism in the Western Cape.”

CTICC put the bid forward in association with Cape Town Routes Unlimited and conference organiser, African Agenda.

The new win comes hot on the heels of last month's announcement of four other international congresses that will be coming to Cape Town in the years 2010 to 2014.

CTICC has a portfolio of 134 international congresses booked for the next eight years until 2016.

The four new congresses will see some 350 nuclear professionals arriving from 60 different countries for the Youth Nuclear Congress in July 2010 and CTICC will host 2 000 delegates at the 62nd International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in October 2011.

The 8th International Aquarium Congress being hosted at CTICC in September 2012 will draw 500 delegates from overseas to Cape Town and the December 2014 congress of the UNI-Global Union Congress will attract 2 000 international trade unionists to the Mother City - representing 15 million union members from across the globe.