The Annual Meeting is perhaps the most visible and anticipated of all the various activities that the Society for Neuro-Oncology undertakes each year. In this installment of the SNO 25th Anniversary History Series we focus on the seminal annual event in neuro-oncology, a gathering that brings together the global neuro-oncology community of clinical care providers, scientists, allied health personnel, trainees, patient advocates and industry partners.
The first Annual Meeting was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1995, and launched the Society’s early efforts to begin the long trek towards bringing together a coalition of the various disciplines taking care of patients with neurological malignancies (see Table 1 for complete list). With a turn-out of approximately 190 participants, the scientific presentations were primarily from members of the few organized brain tumor centers that were then existent and largely from the core clinical specialties such as neurosurgery and neuro-oncology. Since its inception, the primary focus of the SNO Annual Meeting has been to provide a platform for scientific exchange specific to neuro-oncology; however, the early meetings also facilitated dialogue regarding the relevance of the Society in the larger environment of cancer sciences and the potential role and future direction of SNO and its membership. Since then, each successive meeting has reflected the growing significance and reach of the Society and its adoption by scientists and clinicians alike as the premier organization that they identify with in their search for a peer community.
Table 1.
SNO Annual Meeting history
| 1996 - Santa Fe, NM Chair: Victor Levin | Abstracts: 115 Registration: 215 |
| 1997 - University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA Chairs: WK Alfred Yung, Albert Wong | Abstracts: 143 Registration: 301 |
| 1998 - San Francisco, CA Chair: Mitchel Berger | Abstracts: 238 Registration: 373 |
| 1999 - Scottsdale, AZ Chairs: Susan Chang, C. David James Education Day Chairs: Edward Shaw, Steven Rosenfeld | Abstracts: 228 Registration: 430 |
| 2000 - Chicago, IL Chairs: Abhijit Guha, Minesh Mehta Education Day Chair: Michael Berens | Abstracts: 236 Registrants: 512 |
| 2001 - Washington, DC* Chairs: Mitchel Berger, Co-Chairs: Jean-Yves Delatre, Massao Matsutani (Program Chairs: Erwin van Meir, Rolf Bjerkvig, Yukitaka Ushio) | Abstracts: 427 Registrants: 816 |
| 2002 - San Diego, CA Chair: Abhijit Guha Education Day Chair: Corey Raffel | Abstracts: 265 Registrants: 576 |
| 2003 - Keystone, CO Chair: Abhijit Guha Education Day Chairs: David Gutmann, Arie Perry | Abstracts: 312 Registrants: 660 |
| 2004 - Toronto, Canada Chair: WK Alfred Yung Education Day Chair: David Gutmann | Abstracts: 441 Registrants: 725 |
| 2005 - Edinburgh, Scotland* WFNO Chairs: Carmine Carapella, Co-Chairs: Robin Grant, Michael Prados; Masao Matsutani. (Program Chairs: Robin Grant, Peter Collins, Stuart Grossman, Jong Hyun Kim) | |
| 2006 - Orlando, FL Chair: WK Alfred Yung Education Day Chair: Frederick Lang | Abstracts: 493 Registrants: 818 |
| 2007 - Dallas, TX Chair: Russell Pieper Education Day Chair: Lois Lampson | Abstracts: 496 Registrants: 963 |
| 2008 - Las Vegas, NV Chair: Michael Vogelbaum Education Day Chair: Patrick Wen | Abstracts: 561 Registrants: 1190 |
| 2009 - Yokohama, Japan* WFNO Chair: Masao Matsutani, Co-Chairs: Susan Chang, Kyung Gi Cho, Michael Weller | Abstracts: 408 Registrants: 706 |
| 2009 - New Orleans, LA** Chairs: Frederick Lang, Randy Jensen | Abstracts: 599 Registrants: 1023 |
| 2010 - Montreal, Canada Chair: Kenneth Aldape Education Day Chairs: Tracy Batchelor, Howard Colman, Erwin Van Meir | Abstracts: 600 Registrants: 1081 |
| 2011 - Anaheim, California** Chairs: Timothy Cloughesy, Michael Vogelbaum Education Day Chairs: Eric Chang, Elana Farace, Arjun Sahgal, Jason Sheehan | Abstracts: 667 Registrants: 1410 |
| 2012 - Washington, DC Chair: Antonio Chiocca Education Day Chairs: Michael Glantz, Balveen Kaur, Vinay Puduvalli | Abstracts: 657 Registrants: 1541 |
| 2013 - San Francisco, CA* WFNO Chair: Mitchel Berger, Co-Chairs: Susan Chang, Koich Ichimura, Ryo Nishikawa, Russell Pieper, Riccardo Soffietti, Michael Weller Education Day Chairs: Susan Chang, Timothy Cloughesy, David Eisenstat, Rakesh Jalali, Mary Lovely, Martin Taphoorn, Tobias Walbert | Abstracts: 956 Registrants: 2037 |
| 2014 - Miami, FL Chairs: Patrick Wen, Gelareh Zadeh Education Day Chairs: Terri Armstrong, Louis Burt Nabors, David Schiff, Eudocia Quant Lee, Alasdair Rooney (Metastasis to the CNS: Biology and Consequences) | Abstracts: 893 Registrants: 1882 |
| 2015 - San Antonio, TX Chairs: Tracy Batchelor, Gelareh Zadeh Education Day Chairs: Gavin Dunn, Michael Lim, Hideho Okada, Michael Scheurer, Jeffrey Wefel | Abstracts: 905 Registrants: 1900 |
| 2016 - Scottsdale, AZ Chairs: Manish Aghi, Tracy Batchelor Education Day Chairs: Manmeet Ahluwalia, Jaishri Blakeley, Kristina Hardy, Keith Ligon | Abstracts: 1024 Registrants: 2145 |
| 2017 - San Francisco, CA Chairs: Manish Aghi, Frank Furnari, Vinay Puduvalli Education Day Chairs: Susan Bell, Robert Cavaliere, Albert Kim, Khalid Shah | Abstracts: 1204 Registrants: 2524 |
| 2018 - New Orleans, LA Chairs: Frank Furnari, Daphne Haas-Kogan, Vinay Puduvalli Education Day Chairs: Brian Alexander, Ingo Mellinghoff, Joohee Sul, Martin Taphoorn | Abstracts: 1199 Registrants: 2345 |
| 2019 - Phoenix, AZ Chairs: Daphne Haas-Kogan, Monika Hegi, Michael Lim, David Schiff Education Day Chairs: Christina Amidei, Ranjit Bindra, Daniel Cahill, Deborah Forst, Duane Mitchell, Michelle Monje-Deisseroth | Abstracts: 1203 Registrants: 2570 |
| 2020 - Austin, TX Chairs: Monika Hegi, Michael Lim, Farshad Nassiri, David Schiff Education Day Chairs: Susan Bell, Daniel De Carvalho, Maureen Daniels, Sandra Johnston, Houtan Noushmehr, Susan Short |
* World Federation of Neuro-Oncology Societies Conference
** Joint meeting with the Section on Tumors of the AANS/CNS
Scientific Exchange
One of the primary functions of the SNO Annual Meeting is to provide a high visibility platform for presentation of cutting-edge basic and clinical research data by the larger international neuro-oncology community consisting of members and non-members alike. The meeting features plenary sessions with keynote talks by leaders in the fields of basic and clinical research in neuro-oncology as well as the overall field of cancer. These very well attended sessions also highlight breakthrough discoveries over the past year, which are of broad interest to the neuro-oncology community, through its highly competitive selection of oral platform presentations. Highly rated abstracts are also selected as oral presentations in various clinical and research categories throughout the scientific sessions. The remaining abstracts accepted for presentation are given the opportunity to provide either e-talks or poster presentations. These various formats with rigorous selection and highly interactive sessions provide an enriched platform for scientific exchange, constructive critiques and collaboration for the presenters and audience alike
Education
Another vital role of the annual meeting is the focus on education of the attendees at all levels of training and experience through a variety of mechanisms. A dedicated Education Day precedes the main scientific meeting that has been recognized by trainees and practitioners alike as a highly valued component of the Annual Meeting. Recognizing the diversity of the composition and the practice environment of the members, the Education Day has evolved to have two parallel sessions focusing on clinical and research content as well as on quality of life and symptom management; these sessions now provide complementary and carefully curated content that allows a broad educational experience to be delivered to the attendees. On each day of the main scientific meeting, concurrent Sunrise Sessions feature a number of talks focusing on research advances, and Lunch Tutorials that are more didactic in nature, provide additional opportunities for the attendees to increase their knowledge base in specific areas of interest. Such sessions have often helped to solidify the attendees’ knowledge base so that they can have a more informed engagement with the scientific content of the remainder of the meeting program.
Mentorship and Career Development
While the early SNO Annual Meetings were primarily driven by established faculty members with trainees often learning by exposure to the meeting activities and participation in educational sessions, SNO has, in the recent years, made a deliberate and thoughtful attempt to build several dedicated opportunities and events focusing on the needs of trainees and young investigators in the field. This was achieved in large part not only by the growing recognition of the special needs of trainees by the successive leadership teams but also by increasing the direct participation of junior faculty and trainees themselves in team leadership roles within various committees and working groups of SNO. This approach has enabled the several teams of junior leaders to identify gaps in their experience within the SNO activities as well as envision, participate and direct the activities that could best address such gaps. Events such as the Fellow Career Retreat, Career Development and Networking Reception, the SNO Young Investigators Luncheon, and the Neuro-Oncology Trainee Forum have all served as excellent platforms for career growth, networking and mentoring of early career faculty and trainees.
Collaboration and Networking
The Annual Meeting provides a unique opportunity for scientists, clinicians, trainees, advocacy groups, philanthropic organizations and industry partners nationally and internationally to meet and engage each other in a dynamic environment. The meeting is often an incubator for initiation of scientific collaborations, for planning of clinical trials, exchange of scientific ideas and meetings of cooperative groups and consortia. Over the years, the value of the SNO Annual Meeting as a highly effective networking venue has become another major reason for the growing attendance at each meeting as well as an increase in its membership. The venue has been the scene of a variety of interactions including clinical trial investigator meetings, research discussions, grant and protocol planning, international collaborations and scientific event planning.
Logistics and Organization
Each annual meeting is a meticulously planned event which takes months of preparation; the process is initiated by the selection and appointment of the chairs of the SNO Annual Meeting and Education Day by the President of the Society. The early meetings of the Society had a single chair for the scientific program, assisted by two part-time administrative staff, with approximately 200–300 submitted abstracts reviewed by a handful of senior reviewers and selected for oral or poster presentations. The appointment of full-time professional staff in 2006 transformed the operational structure and function of the Society, allowing expansion and enhancement of the Annual Meeting activities. This team has provided invaluable support to the chairs of the scientific and educational programs each year, coordinating the behind-the-scenes complex operational details of the meeting organization. In the recent years, the Annual Meeting has enjoyed a steady expansion, with abstract submissions consistently in excess of 1000, and annual attendance approaching 3000. To enable the meeting chairs to manage this increased workload, the SNO administrative staff has worked closely with the scientific and technology committees to establish a highly streamlined workflow for abstract submissions, assignment review and scoring, and for the logistical organization and coordination of the various scientific, educational, and social components of the meeting.
Community and Social Interactions
From the inaugural meeting of SNO in Santa Fe a quarter of a decade ago, the initial founders of the Society and the senior leadership envisaged the Annual Meeting to be not only as a scientific congress, but also as a gathering of friends and colleagues across the world who have the common goal of tackling neuro-oncologic diseases. This emphasis on social interaction was not only a natural evolution of the collegiality and mutual respect of the early members of the Society, but also a conscious recognition that building a culture of personal relations, open and honest dialogue and teamwork through mutual trust and friendship was a key foundation for building collaborations and coalitions. Successive leadership teams have continued this tradition and this atmosphere can be seen to permeate each annual meeting to date from the selection and arrangement of the venues to the numerous thoughtfully organized opportunities for social interactions among the attendees. The highlight of these efforts is the SNO gala dinner, a much anticipated social gathering with ample opportunity to catch up with friends in a relaxed atmosphere. Beginning with the story telling event by a Native American in Santa Fe to various carefully crafted events unique to the cities where the meetings are held, each SNO gala event has provided its international audience an opportunity to experience the intimate feel of a smaller Society that SNO started as, despite being the much larger community that it is now.
Conclusion
The SNO Annual Meeting epitomizes many of the exemplary values of the Society and its membership and provides an annual opportunity for the large and diverse group of practitioners and researchers to gather together and realize the sense of being a global community. It also provides unique educational, scientific and networking opportunities to members and non-members, and generates fresh energy to launch new efforts to improve the quality and impact of the activities of SNO and the global neuro-oncology community.