MAY/JUNE 2007
Volume 13 - No. 2
Oceania Tobacco Control Meeting
14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health
SRNT Newsletter
May/June 2007, Volume 13, Number 2
Upcoming International Tobacco Conferences: Oceania Tobacco
Control Meeting
4th - 7th, September 2007
The inaugural Oceania Tobacco Control Conference is to take place in Auckland, New Zealand later this year. Two gateway meetings will be held on Tuesday September 4th prior to the conference commencing. One of these will be the 1st Oceania SRNT Meeting entitled Using science to help drive the agenda.
The conference officially gets underway late on the afternoon of September 4th. Delegates will be welcomed with a uniquely New Zealand experience - the pôwhiri (a traditional Mâori welcome). The conference academic program will begin at 8.30 am the following morning.
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Aotea Centre, site of the 2007 |
The conference program will include a mix of plenary sessions of keynote speakers along with smaller concurrent sessions and poster presentations. There will also be a limited number of workshops aimed specifically at skill development in a particular area.
There will be five plenary sessions — each featuring one or more keynote presentations. To ensure that the program includes something for everyone, keynote speakers come from various areas of tobacco control. Confirmed keynote speakers are: Professor Shu-Hong Zhu (University of California, San Diego); Professor Melanie Wakefield (Director of the Centre for Behavioral Research in Cancer, Melbourne), Professor Chris Cunningham (Professor of Mâori Health and Director of the Research Centre for Mâori Health & Development at Massey University, Wellington), Associate Professor Colin Tukuitonga (Head of Pacific and International Health, University of Auckland), Matthew Allen (a policy specialist who has worked extensively in the Pacific and Asia), and Dr Caleb Otto (Senator from the Republic of Palau). One final speaker is yet to be confirmed.
The concurrent sessions will be either 10 or 20 minute presentations. Abstracts were invited from people working in tobacco control and were subjected to a rigorous review process. Just over 120 abstracts were accepted for oral presentation. There will also be poster presentations in the conference foyer which delegates will be able to interact with authors and view during refreshment breaks.
A number of workshops will be held aimed at increasing the skill level of delegates who attend. Topics being considered include: communicating with the media; getting published; epidemiology made simple; the science of nicotine addiction and pharmacotherapies; getting a policy through; advocacy.
In addition to the exciting scientific agenda, two social events will be held —!ç the opening reception following the pôwhiri early on Tuesday evening and the conference dinner on Wednesday night. The dinner will have a Pacific theme. The Oceania Tobacco Control Conference is being held at the Aotea Centre - part of the Edge Performing Arts & Conventions complex. This is a modern venue with up to the minute technology. The Edge is located in central Auckland and is close to accommodation, restaurants and entertainment.
Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand and is home to over a third of New Zealanders. Set among 48 volcanic cones in Maori it is known as Tamaki Makau Rau _ the city of one hundred lovers. It is a cosmopolitan city with a strong Polynesian flavor.
Getting to Auckland is easy. There are direct flights from major centers in Australia, the Pacific, Asia and USA. For more information about the Oceania Tobacco Control conference and to register visit http://www.smokefreeoceania.org.nz