The theme of this year’s AAPM meeting was “Embracing Change, Impacting Patient Care”. This theme was reflected throughout in the talks on emerging technologies, patient impact and outcomes from clinical trials globally, focussed sessions and meetings on disseminating current practices at various clinics and developing guidelines for clinical procedures and practices.

The AAPM Meeting showcases some of the leading work on medical physics for cancer treatment, with a focus on translational cancer research, research translation and evidence-based clinical practice. AAPM task groups routinely determine clinical guidelines for radiation therapy practice that are subsequently adopted around the world.

The annual MASCC conference is a leading event in the field of supportive cancer care. The theme for the MASCC/AFSOS/ISOO 2024 was “Empowering People Impacted by Cancer and Living with Toxicities”.

The ESMO Gynaecological Cancers Congress 2024 focused on advancing knowledge and collaboration in the field of gynaecological oncology around the theme of recent advancements in diagnosis, treatment modalities, and patient care strategies.

In the Digital and Quantitative Pathology Companion Club session, I was invited to present a synopsis of the current RCPA Draft Guidance Document for Artificial Intelligence in Pathology, a document intended to help pathologists, laboratories, and ultimately regulatory authorities safely implement AI-related tools in pathology practice.

The American College of Sports Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting, the largest exercise medicine conference globally, began with an Exercise Oncology preconference meeting aimed at establishing a new society called the International Society of Exercise Oncology.

This meeting boasted a global audience of over 1000 researchers specialising in extracellular vesicles. The theme of the meeting was “Discover, Innovate and Understand”. Attendees had diverse interests spanning bacterial and plant biology, cancer biomarkers, cancer metastasis, therapeutics and nanotechnology.

The ISMRM Annual Meeting is the largest event of its kind, dedicated to advancements in MRI technology. This year, the conference attracted over 5000 delegates from around the globe, including researchers, clinicians, and industry professionals. The central theme revolved around developing and integrating cutting-edge MRI technology into medical research and clinical practice.

I had the privilege of attending the Cancer & Primary Care Research Network (Ca-PRI) conference in Melbourne. It marked the first Ca-PRI conference in the southern hemisphere with over 200 delegates from researchers, policymakers, and clinicians representing 60 countries in attendance.

BreastScreen Australia Conference provided a highly valuable opportunity to attend my first conference as a PhD candidate and to present a systematic review on clinical guidelines for the management of women with dense breasts around the world.

This conference has sparked new research ideas for me particularly looking at programs in our local hospitals comparing clinician and patient perceptions to see if we can improve the quality of care for our patients.

Aus MRinRT is all about the use of MRI and radiotherapy for treatment of cancers and covers a wide range of topics from fundamental physics, cancer biology and clinical research.

I had the pleasure of attending the ASBHM Annual Scientific Conference on Kaurna country in Adelaide. This conference has a strong focus on theory-driven models for behaviour change in designing translational research, as well as critique of these models in delivering healthcare.

ICMP was attended by over 1000 delegates including medical physicists, radiation oncologists and researchers from all over the world. The theme was Innovations in Radiation Technology and Medical Physics for Better Healthcare, particularly focussing on automation in radiation therapy.

The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium typically attracts close to 10,000 attendees from 100 countries and is the premier international platform for breast cancer research.

With the support of a Sydney Cancer Partners Conference Support Grant, I was able to attend two key oncology meetings of crucial relevance to my work. The first conference I attended was the PoCoG ASM, which was a one-day conference dedicated to psycho-oncology research and practice.

The theme this year was 50 years of innovation in cancer care: Learning from the past to inspire the future. COSA features a multi-disciplinary membership, conference delegates included clinicians and researchers working in various areas which was reflected in the breadth of presentation topics covered across the course of the conference.

I was very excited to attend the COSA Annual Scientific Meeting in person this year particularly as this was my first in-person conference.

This conference, with >1000 delegates was the 50th anniversary of the organisation. It was highlighted by amazing presenters such as Prof Michael Friedlander giving an overview of how ovarian cancer treatment has changed since he started working in the late 1970s.

This annual meeting of the Royal Australian College of Radiologists (encompassing both Clinical Radiology and Radiation Oncology) was attended by over 1500 delegates. The theme of this year’s ASM was “Beyond”.

The European Association in Neuro-Oncology (EANO) Annual Meeting is the second largest neuro-oncology conference in the world.

The 2023 World Congress of Psycho-Oncology was the 24th annual conference under the auspices of the International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS). This conference has a focus on both translational cancer research and evidence based clinical practice in psycho-oncology.

The Australian and New Zealand Head and Neck Cancer Society Annual Scientific Meeting is the premier head and neck cancer meeting in Australia. It was the first time that this Scientific Meeting was held in a regional area as well as having a convenor who was an allied health professional, a physiotherapist.

I was recently very fortunate to attend and present my research at the third AACR-AHNS conference where leaders in the field presented their latest research and critical updates on head and neck cancer biology, detection, imaging, prevention, and therapies.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) annual meeting is the largest and most prestigious conference in the field of medical physics, attended by over 4,000 international experts.

I was very lucky to be supported by Sydney Cancer Partners to attend two back-to-back international conferences in June, firstly in Copenhagen Denmark, followed by Nara Japan.

The Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) is an international, interdisciplinary organisation dedicated to the practice, education, and research of supportive care in cancer.

The ISMRM & ISMRT Annual Meeting is the largest meeting of MRI professionals across the world, with more than 5000 attendees in 2023, including MRI radiologists, radiographers and physicists.

In April 2023 I attended the 35^th International Papillomavirus Conference (IPVC 2023) in Washington DC, along with almost 1800 others working in the field, from over 100 countries.

I attended the AACR Annual Meeting in Orlando Florida from the 16 -19 April, where I gave a presentation on our study on longitudinal microbiome-immune dynamics during immune checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy.

The AACR annual meeting brings together cancer researchers, both clinicians and basic scientists of all levels and fields to present and discuss the latest in cancer research.  It is the largest cancer conference in the world and this year there were approximately 21,000 attendees.

CBCC2023 was an amazing opportunity. I got to share my research, and hear from and meet some great researchers in my field. I am very grateful for the travel grant from Sydney Cancer Partners and Cancer Institute NSW that supported me to attend this wonderful conference.

The Australasian Melanoma Conference was attended by approximately 350 clinicians, researchers and consumers, over two typically hot and humid Brisbane days. There were two plenary sessions and six concurrent sessions (20 sessions in total) covering epidemiology, clinical practice, pathology, basic science, and emerging treatments and technologies to detect and treat melanoma, and the lived experiences of skin cancer from inspiring consumers and advocates.

It was a great experience to participate in the 6^th COSA Cancer Survivorship 2023 which was held on 9-10 March at the Adelaide Convention Centre. The conference theme for this year is ‘Solidarity in Survivorship: bringing us together’.

The Australian Lung Cancer Conference (ALCC) was held in mid-February in the Gold Coast Queensland This is a multidisciplinary conference with oncologists, scientists, nursing staff, radiation oncologists and respiratory physicians to come together to discuss emerging research in lung cancer.

The HUPO Annual Congress is a unique international event that provides a platform for translational and clinical proteomic scientists to learn about advancements in clinical proteomics, share their works and discuss future collaborations. Proteomic is defined as large-scale studies of proteins in cells and tissues. The HUPO congress offers multiple pre- and post-congress workshops and commercialization courses as well as ECR mentoring events that are filled with up-to-date training opportunities on emerging proteomic data analysis, data interpretation, and translation.

ASI2022 was a fantastic meeting of immunologist in Australian and New Zealand and was my first big
conference or meeting in my PhD. It was attended by over 1000 delegates, audience was
immunologist researchers with some clinicians. As well as many incredibly impressive invited
speakers. I got to connect with old colleagues, meet exciting people in the field and ask interesting
questions.

The Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA) Annual Scientific Meeting brought together some 600 clinicians, researchers, and communities in the cancer space to discuss the latest research and programs of work that endeavour to make a difference in the lives of people affected by cancer.

I was exceedingly grateful to have this opportunity to attend the American Society of Dermatopathology 59th annual meeting. This is a leading large conference in this field, attracting a diverse range of well-known USA speakers covering a breadth of topics related to dermatopathology (including nail disorders, artificial intelligence, skin lymphomas, molecular advances, melanoma-related pathology, and legal aspects to care).

The International Clinical Trial Methodology Conference is a focussed arena for dissemination of trials methodology research. Over 800 delegates from more than 22 countries attended the 2022 conference. As a trial methodologist, this conference is of singular importance for networking and learning.

The EMBO telomere conference is one of two major international telomere meetings that are held in alternative years. This meeting attracts all the major research groups in the telomere field and showcases the top telomere and associated research developments. Specifically, it covers the topics of telomere structure/function, telomere protection/replication and telomere maintenance mechanisms, telomere transcription and telomere biology disorders (genetic and in cancer).

Thanks to funding from Sydney Cancer Partners, I attended the International Conference on Communication in Healthcare in September at Glasgow Caledonian University. It was great to both be able to attend alongside my colleagues from the Sydney Health Literacy Lab (Prof Kirsten McCaffery, Dr Tessa Copp, Dr Julie Ayre & Olivia Mac) and also meet many health communication researchers, clinicians and teachers I otherwise would not have been able to meet. I am very grateful for the funding from Sydney Cancer Partners!

The 11th ANZUP ASM brought together 400 multi-disciplinary delegates working in genitourinary (GU) cancer, including doctors, nurses, allied health, researchers and consumers. The ASM presents the latest updates in research, diagnosis, treatment and management of GU cancers and is the key Australian conference for discussion and dissemination of ANZUP-led clinical trials and other GU-focused trials.

The annual meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is the largest and most prestigious annual global conference in the field of medical physics, with around 4,000 international attendees over 5 days. However, since moving into my current research group 3 years ago, the AAPM annual conference has been held online, like the majority of conferences during the COVID era. While I have been very grateful to attend, be able to present my research and listen to others, virtual attendance is just unable to offer the full experience.