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 at least four years before the actual date of the congress.
The location for the WAIMH 19th World Congress 2026 has already been decided and will be announced at the WAIMH 2024 Interim World Congress. The Interim Congress will be held from 5-7 June 2024 in Tampere, Finland with the theme Looking for the Best Care for Babies, Young Children, and Their Families.
WAIMH is open for bids for the 20th World Congress in 2028. Expressions of interest for future congresses are welcome and formal bids for the 2028 World Congress should be received at the WAIMH office by 15 December 2024.
The bids will be presented to the Board online during February 2025.
The WAIMH Board will decide on the 2028 congress site at an online Board meeting in March 2025.
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 if possible, others of the LOC have to be members 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 18 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.
