The 31^st National conference of Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists and Leprologists (DERMACON 2003) was held in Kolkata, the cultural capital of India, between 30th January and 2nd February. Delegates from all corners of the country and from across the globe, including USA, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Thailand, France, Kuwait, UAE and from most of the SAARC countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal participated in this biggest ever Dermatology carnival in India.

Under the Chief Patron Dr. R. K. Panja and President Dr. B. Haldar the organizing committee was headed by Chairman Dr.S.K.Dey and vice Chairman Dr. Dwijen Gangopadhyay. Dr. Aloke Roy was the treasurer. The workaholic organizing Secretary Dr. Nitin Mukherjee worked day and night for almost two years and left no stone unturned to make this a milestone meet. The secretary of the host state Dr. Koushik Lahiri played a pivotal role as the joint organizing secretary with the support of other joint secretary Dr. Goutam Banerjee.

Dr. Subrata Malakar as the Chairman of Scientific committee did a wonderful job in preparing a program that is unusually comprehensive with the active participation of a galaxy of academicians and researchers with very high distinction drawn from the national and international levels. Dr. Sandipan Dhar and Dr. Gobinda Chatterjee were the secretaries of scientific committee. The President of this committee was Dr. Sujit Sengupta.

The venue was Science City, Kolkata, which is one of the best convention center complexes in the country with all the state of the art facilities. The topic of CME this year was "Aesthetic Dermatology in Indian Perspective". The CME day (30th January 2003) was dedicated to the memory of the founder President of IADVL, Prof. B. N. Banerjee. 10 CME lectures and two panel discussions kept the audience spell bound. With nearly 1200 CME participants, this was one of the best-attended CME programme in our history. Accredited CME hours were awarded to the delegates.

From the next day simultaneous sessions were conducted in 5 air-conditioned lecture halls, including the scientific display (poster) hall. The exquisitely decorated main auditorium with a mammoth capacity of nearly 2500 was a feast to the eyes. All sorts of projection facilities (slide, LCD, laptop, OHP) were available in all the halls.

The simultaneous trade exhibit was the biggest till date with nearly 80 participants.

The inauguration ceremony was held on the 31st January. Dr. Surjyakanta Mishra, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare was the Chief guest, while Dr. Ashish Bandopadhyay the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University was the Guest of Honour. Sri Jhari Patra, a septagenerian office staff of the host state, performed the ceremonial lighting of the lamp to inaugurate the conference officially. This honour was conferred upon him for his unflinching service for nearly six decades. He was honesty personified, a symbol of integrity.

Dr. S.K.Dey the Chairman of Organising Committee and Dr. G.B.Mukherjee, Chairman of the Reception committee welcomed the delegates.

Prof. A.K. Bajaj took charge as the new President of IADVL. Senior dermatologists of Bengal were felicitated.

Several books including those by Brig. (Dr.) S. P. Chattopadhyay, Dr. V. K. Sharma, Dr. Ramji Gupta and Dr. Sandipan Dhar were released. Two sets of CDs by Dr. R.R. Mittal were also released.

Dr. B. Haldar was awarded with Prof. K.C. Kandhari foundation award for his lifetime achievement in the field of Dermatology, teaching and research.

Prof. K.C. Saha gave Shroff Oration on his profound experience on Arsenicosis. Dr. D. M.Thappa delivered Ambady oration and talked on spectrum of HIV related cutaneous disorders. In Glaxo oration Dr. Ashok Ghorpade spoke on tattoo-induced granulomas. Fulford oration was given by Brig. (Dr.) A. K. Jaiswal and he talked on cicatrical alopecia.

The highlights of DERMACON 2003 were its astonishingly rich scientific content. A total of 418 presentations were performed. Of which 4 orations, 10 CME lectures, 60 invited (guest) lectures, 180 oral presentations (free papers), 14 Award papers, and 150 poster presentations were included. 23 lively and interactive panel discussions kept the delegates mesmerized. Other that this one innovative and interactive session "Doyens of Dermatology" has been able to create sensation among the delegates. Dr. Raj Kubba moderated this session with his usual zeal and brilliance. Among the legends present in the programme were Dr. R. K. Panja, Dr. J.S. Pasricha, Dr. Kareen Schaulreuter, Dr. Anthony du Vivier and Dr. Harald Gollnick. Among many new and thought provoking concepts one session dedicated to "Interdisciplinary approach" is worth mentioning. Speakers of highest caliber in their respective field spoke in this session.

A very well organized and attended Dermaquiz session by Dr. Sandipan Dhar was truly breathtaking.

A separate special session was dedicated to International Society of Dermatology. And Dr. Coleman Jacobson, the President of ISD delivered his well though out lecture in it.

Multiple sessions dedicated to HIV/AIDS, epidemiology, Leprosy, STD, Pigmentary disorders, therapeutic update, dilemmas, directions, procedural, LASERs, dermatosurgical complications, dermatomicrobiology, dermatopathology, multiple skin-site sessions and sessions on high quality paper pearls, were the attractive features of this conference.

Among the international luminaries (other than those already mentioned) Dr. W. Westerhoff was certainly the pick of the lot. He was simply superb in both of his lectures on the latest of pigmentary disorders. Dr. A. M. Lefkovits conducted a workshop on botulinum toxin. Dr. Jane Wahlberg and Dr. Magnus Bruze spoke on contact dermatitis while world famous biochemist Dr. John Wood was very critical in his analysis of hydroquinone. Renowned workers in the field of HIV/AIDS like Dr. Praphan Phanuphak, Dr. D.G. Saple, Dr. Heiner Grosskurth and others gave the conference a different dimension.

A dozen of sponsored sessions also add to the rich content.

Other than the academic extravaganza DERMACON 2003 has gone down in history for its mind-boggling social events as well. The famous Shruti performing troupe gave a stunningly beautiful dance recital based on Tagore's Gitanjali in the inaugural ceremony. Live performance of Bengal's traditional Baul in the venue is also worth mentioning. Three glittering dinners, one at Nalban, one at Nicco Park and the last at the giant air-conditioned Netaji Indoor Stadium with live music, dance, fire works and exquisite cuisine mingled with warm Bengali hospitality has surely touched the hearts of all the delegates. On the last day special Bengali lunch was arranged at the adjoining Boat club. Numerous sight seeing programmes and visit to nearby places were also organized.

The central council meetings and the Annual General Body meeting were held as per schedule. It was decided that from 2005 all future National conferences of IADVL would be named as DERMACON.

Total number of participants (including normal delegates, post-graduates, accompanying delegates, foreign speakers, dignitaries, corporate-delegates) added up to a mammoth and unprecedented 3500 plus figure. Number of CME participants was nearly 1200. Online registration touched a never before 450 mark. Abstracts submitted online and also by e-mail was more than 250 (almost 60% of all abstracts). We had an astonishingly high number of hits (average 130 hits/week) to the conference website http://www.e-ijd.org/dermacon_2003_cal.asp. The total number of e-mails exchanged reached a staggering 8500 plus figure.

DERMACON 2003 was surely a mega event considering all parameters. But not only for sheer magnitude, DERMACON 2003 will be remembered for its profoundly comprehensive academic content and for introducing many pioneering concepts like early bird registration, five sets of attractive mailers started 15 months before the conference and making the whole of the scientific programme scheduler on the Internet (http://www.e-ijd.org/derm_spv.html#sched) well in advance.

It's of little surprise that the media has branded DERMACON 2003 as the "best ever organized medical conference in India".

Long live IADVL