6 WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2015 Editorial | Expert Point of View | Gastro 2015: AGW/WGO | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events The World Gastroenterology Organisation Foundation; Some Reflections Eamonn MM Quigley, MD, FRCP, FACP, FACG, FRCPI Outgoing Chair, World Gastroenterology Foundation Chief, Gastroenterology and Hepatology David M Underwood Chair of Medicine in Digestive Disorders Houston Methodist Hospital Professor of Medicine Weill Cornell Medical College Houston, Texas, USA Over the past several years the World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) has undergone a fundamental change in its objectives and, conse-quently in its modus operandi. Long gone are the days when the primary mission of WGO (or, OMGE as it was then known) was to orga-nize a free-standing, quadrennial World Congress of Gastroenterol-ogy (WCOG). This was no minor undertaking and involved extensive planning as well as fundraising related to the congress. Needless-to-say, the financial fortunes of WGO hinged to a very large extent on the success of World Congresses but, thanks to prudent stewardship and very careful planning, proceeds from such events did sustain WGO in the intervening years and permitted WGO to present a variety of educational and training events, as well as maintain communi-cations with member societies. How the landscape has changed. Firstly, it became increasingly difficult to fit a free-standing, independent World Congress into an increasingly crowded gastroenterology meeting calendar. The growth in size and quality of Eu-ropean, Asia-Pacific, Latin-American, and Africa-Middle East congresses, not only in gastroenterology, but also in hepatology, coupled with ever growing national congresses and successful mono-thematic symposia made it impossible to justify and fund an independent World Con-gress. Beginning with the Congresses in Vienna in 1998 and Bangkok in 2002, WGO moved to a partner-ship model with United European Gastroenterology (UEG) and Asian Pacific Association of Gastroenterol-ogy (APAGE), respectively, thereby, ensuring that there would be no competing regional meeting in the rel-evant part of the world at that time of the year. By the time of the WCOGs in Montreal in 2005 and London in 2009, this partnership model had developed further and now involved close cooperation on all matters between WGO, the regional society (OPGE, formerly AIGE, and UEG, respectively) and the national society (the Canadian and British societies, respectively). This same model was repeated in Shanghai in 2013 and now involved several Chinese and Asia-Pacific societies. While these congresses were most successful in terms of attendance, program quality, and international visibility, a number of factors conspired to reduce the financial outcome for WGO. Firstly, and appropriately, all congresses are now carefully reviewed to ensure that costs and expenses are appropriate and that income and expenditure are carefully balanced. Secondly, while the involvement of multiple societies en-sures the highest quality and provides an exciting level of diversity to the meeting, it also reduces the proceeds that will be forthcoming to any given society. Thirdly, these large congresses are expensive to mount and support from municipalities and governments, as well as from our traditional allies in the pharmaceutical, nutritional, and device industries, has been more challenging to obtain in view of the many other events and activities that compete for their money. Finally, rely-ing on a four-yearly event that, given the natural and man-made convul-sions that our little planet is subject to, could be cancelled or draw poor attendance, carries inevitable risk. For all of these reasons (and there are others, I am sure, that I have omitted) WGO leadership decided to develop the partnership model further and move to two-yearly meetings held in direct partnership with a member society. This concept was supported by a successful “trial run” with the Turkish Society of Gastroenterology in Antalya in 2011 and is about to be repeated with our Australian member society in Brisbane in 2015. It is undoubted that these meetings will not generate large revenues for WGO, but that is not their primary objective, which is to develop ever closer ties with our mem-ber societies around the world and to mutually present educational activities of the highest quality and of greatest relevance to that region. So far I have focused on income; how about the expenditure side of
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