Looking back at ECSS 2014

With the 2015 European College of Sports Science (ECSS) meeting in Malmö just around the corner (in time, if not space), I thought I would recap on what was an exciting meeting in Amsterdam last July. As Deputy Editor of a journal that, at the time, was yet to be launched - the 19th ECSS meeting provided the perfect place to make acquaintance with new and potential Editorial Board members and to get a feel for the research landscape. Despite the name, ECSS is an International organisation, and the delegation was truly global. Aside from Europe - Japan, Australasia and South Africa all seemed to be particularly well represented among delegates; not to mention, Aspetar, of Qatar, was a major sponsor of the event, and two exchange symposia were co-hosted between the ECSS and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and between ECSS and the Japanese Society of Physical Fitness & Sports Medicine (JSPFSM), respectively. The 4-day conference, held at the RAI Convention Centre, consisted of 4 plenary sessions and an honorary session, 36 invited symposia, 74 other oral sessions, 106 mini-oral sessions, and over 500 E-posters, covering the full gamut of sport and exercise science. As the programme’s welcome message alluded to, I ‘regretted that I had only two ears and two eyes’; however, in saying that, the vast coverage of the conference through social media provided one with no excuse for missing out on any information.