Dear Colleagues,

The Organising Committees are delighted to welcome our key note speakers, presenters and delegates to the 3rd International Cerebral Palsy Conference to be held in Sydney in February 2009. The Scientific Committee was overwhelmed with the response from the Call for Abstracts. Over 380 abstracts were submitted from 32 countries around the world, demonstrating that this will truly be an “International” Cerebral Palsy Conference. The abstracts were well distributed across all themes and presentation formats requested. It is a direct result of the dedication of researchers and clinicians across the world that we are able to bring you this exciting, high quality program.

Six streams have been developed to run through the conference, and the preliminary scientific program is now available on the website. The streams will provide all delegates with sessions that are relevant to their particular field, whether coming from a basic science, aetiology, medical, allied health, service provider, policy or governmental background. The inaugural World Congress of Cerebral Palsy Registers and Surveillance Systems is forging ahead, and the preliminary program for this day is also now available.

The University of Notre Dame Australia will host the pre-conference workshops at the School of Medicine Sydney Campus – Darlinghurst we thank them for this support. The Assessment of General Movements pre-conference workshop is already booked out and there are only waiting list places available. Registrations to attend the other pre- and post-conference workshops including the PSANZ Keynote session being presented by Professor Donna Ferriero; International Consensus Guidelines for Botulinum Toxin and the Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA) Rater Certification are now open.

We have had a great deal of interest in the program from people with CP, their families and carers. Recently we received a grant from The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs to support consumers to attend the conference. We are able to offer 50 day registrations free to consumers and we are very excited about this.

The Organising Committee would like to thank other supporters of this conference in particular Allergan Australia for their role as Premier Sponsor.

The Australasian Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AusACPDM) has kindly donated the prize for best paper at the conference. The prize will consist of free registration to present the prize winning paper at the next AusACPDM conference (to be held in Christchurch New Zealand in 2010) and $1500 towards travel expenses.

Many thanks to the Conference Coordinators and members of the Scientific Committee, Organising Committee and Ambassadors who have committed valuable time, energy and expertise to developing the scientific program and social events to make this conference one to remember!

The CP Institute is a not for profit organisation. Any profit that is made by this conference will go directly toward the CP Institute Grants Program. By attending this conference you will be accelerating cerebral palsy research.

Registrations for the conference are now open. Plan to register before December 10, 2008 to take advantage of Early Bird Registration. We truly look forward to seeing you in sunny Sydney in February.