This post is especially for my European readers. I know it’s a little late in the game, and I apologize for that!

Tomorrow, May 14th, the Asociacion Sindrome De Marfan (SIMA) is hosting the first International Congress on Marfan Syndrome. It will be held in the COFA center in the Alicante province of Spain. My friend Badamanes filled me in on all the details.

The topic of the conference is the Losartan vs Atenolol trial. Those of you in the US will recognize Dr. Hal Dietz and Dr. Bart Loeys (Belgium) on the speaker list; Dr. Julie De Backer of Belgium, Dr. Alberto Forteza of Spain, and Dr. Artur Evangelista, also of Spain, are the other speakers.

Friday the aforementioned physicians will be speaking, then that evening there will be an awards dinner for SIMA members at Alicante Castle. It is the organization’s 10th anniversary. Saturday will have self-help groups (much like the Sunday morning workshops at the NMF Conference) and then a general assembly.

For those still interested in attending (it’s not too late!), the conference and dinner are free for SIMA members. For anyone else, the cost is 100 euros or $127 US dollars. Travel to the conference and the hotel fee are not included, although a hotel has been reserved at a reduced rate for conference participants. So far over 200 people have registered!

If, like me, you can’t make the conference, Badamanes is going to be tweeting about it! Look for the hashtag #simaconf. The conference lectures will also be video recorded and there may be English subtitles added. SIMA Magazine’s next issue will also be dedicated to the conference.

I’ll be checking up on the tweets as I have time. Hopefully Badamanes will be willing to share his thoughts and maybe some photos with us after the conference is over!

Any questions that you have can be directed to Miss Manuela Alonso, at congress@marfan.es. She speaks English.

Also, don’t forget to enter the puppet theatre giveaway!