Dear colleague!

Welcome to NOK 2012, promising to be the biggest Nordic Congress of Ophthalmology so far!

I share the sweet privilege with the Organizing Committee, the Nordic and Baltic Advisory Boards, and the Blue & White Conferences of inviting you to contribute to the NOK 2012 Congress. The place is Helsinki, Finland, and the dates are Friday-Tuesday, August 24-28, 2012. We actually start already Wednesday, August 22, with a two-day course for Program Directors, those responsible for nurturing ophthalmologists in the region organised together with the International Council of Ophthalmology.

NOK 2012 is hosted by the Finnish Society of Ophthalmology under auspices of the Nordic Ophthalmologic Committee. The venue, Helsinki Congress Paasitorni, is a blend of old and new, completing major refurbishing as we speak.

As you probably know by now, the main theme is Preventive Ophthalmology, a topic that has received far too little attention in the past. Learn how to prevent to complement your talents in diagnosis and therapy.

Other themes include cataract, cornea, glaucoma, retina, oncology, oculoplastics, ophthalmic pathology, paediatric ophthalmology, visual rehabilitation, history of ophthalmology and evidence-based ophthalmology. It goes without saying that we aim to cover medical, surgical and educational perspectives of these subspecialties on the highest possible level.

Our goal is to provide opportunities of participation for all tastes and needs. The program is split in educational courses, special interest symposia, free paper sessions, videos, keynote papers, and commercial interest symposia. Most of all, we want to create an opportunity to learn, share knowledge, get to know novel technology and pharmaceutical compounds, get excited, and network with colleagues and companies alike – check also the social program for atmosphere and networking - not only from the Nordic countries but also from those across the Baltic.

We already have secured a wide variety of symposia covering all fields of ophthalmology as you can see from our web site. You are now able to propose more, and submission of free papers will commence next month. Take advantage of www.nok2012.fi when submitting.

Indeed, this is the first NOK Congress to specifically bring together eight nations, five from the Nordic and three from the Baltic region. This has aroused much interest and we expect the trend to continue. We would love to break the record of 1000 participants for the first time and with your help it should be an easy deal. After all, there are about 2500 ophthalmologists in the region.

We have made an effort to attract the necessary sponsorship to offer a reasonable registration fee, hopefully agreeable for everyone, wherever you come from. The fees are lower than they were in recent NOK Congresses. Have you see it in any congress before! Accommodation is also available in all price categories, and Finland is better than ever connected by ordinary and budget flights and ferries.

Your participation is of paramount importance to us to enable presenting and spreading of all the new advents in ophthalmology that have emerged or lurk in the horizon in diagnostics and therapeutics as well as prevention.

We as hosts will do our utmost to provide smooth cooperation, a top quality programme and a memorable event professionally and socially. It is a promise! The accompanying portrait verifies that we will go a long way to ensure personally that preparations are perfect.

Please visit www.nok2012.fi regularly to find the most recent information regarding the program of the congress. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Tero Kivelä, MD, FEBO, Congress President