British Association of Plastic Surgeons Program from another generation

SummaryPurposeTo Compare the Association's Summer Programs of 1971 and 2008.MethodsI attended the 1971 meeting of BAPS that was held in London and kept the program. I compared the content of that meeting with the 2008 Provisional Program. A blowup of that 1971 program will be the highlight of the poster.ResultsThe 1971 meeting's registration fee was £10 for me as an overseas non-member registering at the desk compared to the current fee of £500. The meeting was three day long, but only one day was devoted to papers. The first and third days of the meeting were devoted to watching live cranio-facial surgery performed by Tessier at the Hospital for Sick Children. To make the length of these televised sessions more tolerable, a cash bar was available and lunch including beer and squash were served from noon until 4 pm followed by tea from 4 pm to 6 pm Dinner Jackets were required for the 1971 Association dinner compared with dark lounge suits in 2008. In contrast to 2008, the 1971 scientific program consisted of only 13 papers of which all but five were written by single authors. Seven of the papers were published in the British Journal of Plastic Surgery. There were no cosmetic and no breast papers. There were no poster sessions. There were no panel discussions. There were no exhibits.ConclusionThe 1971 meeting was truly from another generation in both its form and content.