We started with a preconference attended by around 40 people. We were visited by the hosts and the Wonca Executive, including Chris van Weel (President), Rich Roberts (incoming President), Alfred Loh (CEO), Michael Kidd (Treasurer) – very honoured! There was a particular sense of how far we had come with a number of attendees having been present at the ‘startup’ meeting in Dublin – we plan to put an updated history of the group’s work on the website shortly.

After the preconference we debriefed and decided to:-

•  collate a more detailed history of the WWPWFM by seeking information from those involved at key stages;
• do a ‘leadership module’ for the website based on the workshops run previously, and also to develop material for the interim meeting;
• follow up via the listserve on how people are using the HER steps in their area;
• progress an online survey on the issues faced by women doctors in training, plus a regional document on training policies. These issues were extensively discussed at the preconference, and the survey will extend this work.

During the main conference it was a particular pleasure to see our own Dada Leopando do the Wes Fabb Oration – another example of a keynote speaker being nominated and accepted through our group, as we had at Istanbul. The two workshops run in the main conference were packed with new attendees, and the focus was particularly on the challenges facing younger women doctors. We were blessed to have a lot of interest (more people than we could seat!) and to hear inspiring presentations from colleagues from the Phillipines, Thailand , Indonesia and Australia. Particular thanks to Teri from Phillipines and Bich from Vietnam for their presence and leadership in speaking for younger women doctors. Amanda Howe also attended the Wonca ‘Heads of Department’ group, and we gave a bursary to the hosts to assist attendance. So hopefully this will really have made our presence clear to all attendees and we can build on this for the future.