With the COVID-19 situation escalating globally, and the declaration of a pandemic, it is disappointing but necessary that we will now officially cancel the 13th ACLAPA Conference for May this year. We will investigate alternative dates as the year unfolds.

We would like to thank you for your support and understanding in these uncertain times.

We advise that a full refund of your registration costs will be made shortly and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

I wish you and your family safety.

with kind regards

David Chong,
President
and the ACLAPA Organising Committee

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Conference update for COVID-19. 

 

 

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Registrations are now open.

The Australasian Cleft Lip and Palate Association (ACLAPA) Executive invite you to attend the 13th ACLAPA Conference to be held at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Melbourne’s Southbank from May 8-10, 2020. Melbourne is undoubtedly one of Australia’s most vibrant, exciting and cosmopolitan cities, and visitors from all over Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and the rest of the globe can look forward to having an unforgettable Australian experience in this truly global city. Please find the link to the Conference Call for Abstracts and Registrations Brochure PDF here .

Who nose?

Your Australian experience begins with the theme for this year’s meeting: who nose? Australians love a good play on words and with this year’s conference including a particular focus on primary and secondary nasal surgery, coupled with our ongoing efforts to assess and treat nasal-sounding speech, we will be asking ourselves the very important question – who knows?

Who knows what the most effective cleft lip and palate surgical protocol is? Who knows the best techniques for improving speech outcomes? Who knows how to best look after our patients’ psychosocial needs? And most importantly, who knows what we are missing in our current cleft and craniofacial care provision and who knows what we could do better?

Come to Melbourne in 2020 as we work together to find out the answers to these questions, and much more.

The ACLAPA Executive has invited a number of highly regarded international and Australasian speakers to participate in the conference, and coupled with a call for abstracts for oral and poster presentation submissions (opening August 21, 2019), the programme promises to be a rich and rewarding educational experience.

As is now standard for all ACLAPA conferences, a Speech Pathology Preconference day will be held on May 7, where our Australian and New Zealand Speech Pathologists will come together to work on specific projects. All regional and international Speech Pathologists are welcome to attend this day. We will also have inaugural Nursing and Dental preconferences with all clinicians who work with children with cleft are invited to attend.

Abstracts are now open – click here to go to abstracts brochure – see page 4 for instructions and link / QR code

Abstracts extended to January 31, 2020

Social Programme

In addition to a comprehensive scientific programme, we also have two social events planned for attendees – a Welcome Reception BBQ on Friday, May 8, and an 80’s themed conference dinner on Saturday, May 9. I would encourage all attendees to join us for these two events to meet new friends and colleagues and to catch up with old friends.

Conference Venue

The Pan Pacific Melbourne is located in the heart of the city’s Southbank precinct, only one minute away from the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre; 10 minutes’ drive from Melbourne’s Flinders Street Railway Station; and 30 minutes’ drive from Melbourne International Airport.

The hotel’s contact details are included below:

Address: 2 Convention Centre Place South Wharf,

Melbourne, Victoria, 3006, Australia

Telephone: + 61 3 9027 2000

Email: enquiry.ppmel@panpacific.com

Accommodation

The Pan Pacific Melbourne has provided a very generous accommodation package for our conference and preconferences, and I would encourage all ACLAPA members and our international attendees to consider reserving a room at the discounted accommodation rates below. These rates apply to Deluxe Twin Bed, Deluxe King, or Family Queen (1 Queen + 1 Single) Rooms.

Room	Rates
Reservations made before June 7, 2019	AUD $ 229* *Non-refundable, non-cancellable rate
Reservations made after June 7, 2019	AUD $ 299** **Changes permitted

To access these special accommodation rates, please follow this link: www.panpacific.com/aclapa

The conference dates are as follows:

Thursday May 7, 2020	Friday May 8, 2020	Saturday May 9, 2020	Sunday May 10, 2020
Preconference Meetings: Speech Pathology  Nursing Dental	ACLAPA Conference Day 1 Welcome Reception BBQ	ACLAPA Conference Day 2 Conference Dinner	ACLAPA Conference Day 3

 Conference Registration

Registration for the conference is now open for ACLAPA members and non-members at the following online ticketing site:

https://www.stickytickets.com.au/85982

Travel

For international attendees, Melbourne International Airport’s airport code is MEL.

For attendees requiring assistance with their travel plans, I would urge you to contact Sid Jones-McCallum from Travel Counsellors Pty Ltd at the details below:

Address: Level 4, 34 Queen Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Telephone: + 61 1300 292 743

Mobile/Cell: + 61 415 242 629

Email: sid@travelcounsellors.com.au

Web: http://www.travelcounsellors.com.au

Next Steps

• Please review the profiles of our international invited speakers on the second announcement brochure;
• Talk to your team and your colleagues about your participation in what will be a great conference;
• Please add the abstract opening (August 21, 2019) and closing (January 21, 2020) dates to your diary;
• Please consider reserving a room now at the Pan Pacific Melbourne at the reduced rates on offer.

Should you have any enquiries about the conference, please to contact Mr David Chong, or Dr Wendy Nicholls, our ACLAPA conference contact, at the emails addresses below:

David: david@dkcsurgery.com

Wendy: wendy.nicholls@health.wa.gov.au