The World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH) organizes world congresses biannually. The Board of Directors starts the process of choosing the location of a new world congress usually four years before the actual date of the congress.
Due to the situation globally with COVID-19, the WAIMH 17th World Congress in Brisbane 2020 was postponed to the year 2021. This change and the ongoing global pandemic and its many adverse consequences impacts the future organization of all WAIMH World Congresses.
The selection of the location for WAIMH 18th World Congress (after Brisbane 2021) has already been decided. The 18th WAIMH World Congress will be held in Dublin in Ireland, July 15-19, 2023. The conference theme is Early Relationships Matter: Advancing Practice, Policy and Research in Infant Mental Health.
WAIMH will arrange a smaller scale conference in 2024.
WAIMH is open for bids for the 19th World Congress in 2026. The WAIMH Board will decide on the 2026 congress site at the Board meeting in Dublin in 2023.
Expressions of interest for future congresses are welcome and formal bids for the 2026 World Congress should be received at the WAIMH office by 28 February 2023.
What the Board of Directors expects from a bid
- Presentation to the Board by the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) that is organized in cooperation with a WAIMH Affiliate Association which is very active in the country or area where the Congress is planned to take place. Please note that the chairperson of the LOC (and others of the LOC) has to be a member of the WAIMH and of the WAIMH Affiliate Association.
- Presentation of the venue proposed for the Congress and its surroundings.
- Presentation of the Professional Congress organizer and its key persons responsible for organizing the Congress.
- Preliminary detailed budget for the Congress, including proposal for the registration fees, calculations of how many delegates would be needed to cover the costs of the Congress, and Professional Congress Organizer fees. Information on plans for social programs and pre- and post-congress tours.
- We welcome and strive for diversity in languages and cultures; 12 of the 17 WAIMH world congresses were held in countries where the official language was other than English. We do need to have a common language for organizational purposes, and that is English. Therefore, the communications with the Office as well as official congress language is English. If the local Affiliate wishes to have translations of presentations, the cost of these translations needs to be factored into the budget.
The bids are kindly asked to be sent to the Executive Directors of WAIMH Kaija Puura and Reija Latva via email office@waimh.org.
