BMS Archive
Meetings of the Society
Diversity of membership
From the beginning, the Society has attracted practitioners from a remarkably wide range of sciences – in addition to biomedical scientists, among its ranks it is possible to find dairy scientists and paint technologists, mathematicians and engineers of many kinds. But perhaps this is not so surprising; an understanding of fluid flow and the exchange of material across membranes is not confined to studies on the small blood vessels of the body, and interdisciplinary insight is crucial for a proper understanding of the subject.
Reflecting this diversity, the Officers of the Society have included experts in anatomy, biochemistry, biophysics, cell biology, chemical engineering, dentistry, dermatology, endocrinology (diabetes), immunology, molecular biology, pathology, pharmacology, physiology and surgery. This makes for interesting meetings, but sometimes creates problems in communication.
Also, while early members of the Society embraced all of the above disciplines, a problem for the Society has been that it is seldom the main scientific ‘home’ for its disciples.
Number of meetings: from two to one meeting a year
Initially, there were two scientific meetings per year, one in the winter in London and one outside the capital in the summer. This remained the norm for some time, but two factors led to change.
First, there was an increase in other related meetings: either international meetings in the discipline, or designated sessions in other relevant societies such as the Physiological Society. Second, some of our meetings only attracted small numbers.
Accordingly, from 1982 onwards there has been a single meeting each year, which is held at Easter and coinciding with the Annual General Meeting. This has ensured larger and more vibrant meetings. The nature of these meetings has also evolved as biology and medicine have changed, and will, I am sure, continue to do so.
Nature of meetings
At the Society’s very first meeting it was agreed that, because of its interdisciplinary nature, joint meetings with other societies would be a feature. The emphasis on this has, perhaps, relaxed as microvascular studies have matured, but interdisciplinarity remains a significant and valuable feature of the Society.
What was more contentious was the gradual change from exclusively oral communications and demonstrations towards the increasing dominance of posters, as can be seen from the Meetings Database. This change was partly a consequence of the increasing size of meetings, but also the result of calls for more time for plenary sessions and specialist discussions.
Speaking for myself, I always preferred presenting posters, as one had time to explain in detail what one was doing and time for detailed one-to-one discussion. As a viewer, one could dip into subjects outside one’s own field or expertise if one wished, without the need to sit through long sessions where bafflement was more likely than enlightenment.
Being on the committee at a time when posters were first introduced was interesting. The UK was rather slow to embrace them − I sometimes suspected because of an unspoken (and macho?) belief in the value of standing up and being grilled by your persecutors (or so it seemed sometimes).
The first BMS meeting to hold posters was a joint meeting with the German Society in 1986. Its success led us to dip a tentative toe into the water at the Charing Cross meeting a year later. After that, their number increased gradually and they are now regarded as a central part of every general meeting.
There are two other obvious features of today’s meetings: the increased number of specialist workshops and symposia and the invited review lectures. Both now play an important role, allowing time for new ideas or insights to be explored in depth. The titles of symposia and the names of lecturers and given in a separate database Symposia and Lectures.
Film sessions and live demonstrations are rare nowadays. This is partly because of the time and trouble they take to prepare, but more importantly because of the increasing dominance of cell and molecular studies, which are not generally well served by short-term demonstration.
International meetings hosted by the BMS
The origins of the Society can be traced back to the urgent need to provide a supporting structure for the Fourth European Society for Microcirculation Conference in 1966.
Support means more than just providing a venue. It means underpinning the costs, as funding does not begin to arrive until close to the date of the meeting. It also means developing the programme and providing the staff to manage it. There is support from the European Society or the International Liaison Group, but the bulk of the work is done by the host society.
For those who may not have attended international meeting, it is worth stressing how exciting such meetings can be. I recall myself how stimulating it was to be completely immersed in my own area of interest for days at a time, and to present my research to people who were not only knowledgeable but interested. Many, if not most, of us tend to be rather isolated in large general Departments and the opportunity to be surrounded by like-minded scientists interested in one’s field is like a breath of fresh air. It may be no coincidence that at least 9 Officers of the BMS also became Officers in the ESM
Anyone seriously interested in running a meeting could do no better than obtain a copy of the booklet by Geraldine Clough, who was Secretary of the ESM meeting held in London in 1992(Clough, 1993).
The Table of International Meetings summarises the meetings hosted by the BMS through the years.
