We are delighted to announce the new dates for our seventh “Open Forum for Osteopathic Education” conference, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic travell restrictions. The Open Forum will take place on 23^rd & 24^th September 2021 in Antwerp, Belgium. Registration is open until 19^th September 2021.

The programme of the Open Forum concentrates solely on teaching osteopathy and the “how, why & what”. This year, it features 2 keynote speeches held by Prof. Paul Vaucher from HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland with topic: Active communication and shared decision in osteopathic education. and Assoc. Prof. Gary Fryer from Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia with topic: Teaching the principles of Osteopathy in Modern Context. , 12 platform presentations, 6 short workshops in 2 sessions and 13 posters.

As requested at our last conference in Lyon 2018, this year, the committee decided to include 30 min specifically dedicated to the poster presentations, briefly presenting authors and topics and allowing time for the attendees to walk around and talk to the poster presenters.

An official photo session also has been planned, so that we can keep alive the memories from this Open Forum for a long time.

There will be also enough time to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee while talking to fellow colleagues or to the companies which sponsor our conference. During the evening of the first day, we want to bring Antwerp’s atmosphere even closer to you. What is Antwerp famous for? Diamonds and chocolate. The venue of the Open Forum, Radisson Blu Astrid Hotel, is directly connected to one of the major attraction in the city Chocolate Nation – the world’s largest Belgian chocolate museum and upon request we can organise a private tour for a small group of participants for a special price. We mentioned not only chocolate but also diamonds. Yes, you guessed it right, we have planned something special. Our Social (pre-dinner) Drink will be dedicated to a little game which includes champagne, diamonds (real and not so real ones) you and two diamond experts. The Social Drink is followed by our elegant cocktail dinner.

This year once more, we are working on making our conference environmental friendly and use as less paper as possible. Therefore, all documents, papers and sponsors materials will be available online (only) and free to download.

We are looking forward to meeting you in Antwerp!

We also organise OsEAN's 1^st Student Open Forum which will take place in Antwerp on 20^th & 21^st September 2021, in the same week as the conference. The Student Open Forum is open to osteopathic students from all schools and levels. More information about the programme and the presenters is available here. Registration will open on 1^st October 2020. We would be very happy if you forward this information to your students.