Welcome to the Annual Scientific Meeting of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association to be held at the Rutherford Hotel, Nelson Sunday November 6^th to 8^th 2023.

The theme of the meeting is “Perfecting Surgical Performance,” where we will concentrate on how to perform technically perfect surgery on a consistent basis. We have confirmed surgical speakers who possess these skills and are superb teachers.

Dr Chris Ahmed is the RACS visiting speaker who wrote the book “Skill” which highlights how to perform and teach surgery, consistently, at an elevated level. Chris will be accompanied by his friend and colleague at Columbia University Dr Mike Vitale who leads the orthopaedic world in quality and safety initiatives. Dr Stuart Weinstein (University of Iowa) and Dr Michael Millis (Harvard University) will share their extraordinary career learnings with us.

There will be a combination of plenary lectures, free papers, and breakout sessions, where selected surgeons from the Subspecialties will present on techniques they use for different surgeries. These will be 90-minute sessions of “How to do the perfect operation” in their field. There will be an international flavour to the meeting, with visiting Presidential Carousel contributing to these sessions.

This is the first year we have combined three Sub Specialty meetings on the weekend before the ASM. The Hip, Paediatric and Spine societies will be having their meetings in Nelson the Saturday and Sunday immediately preceding the Annual Scientific Meeting.

Nelson is a superb place to hold an Annual Meeting, one of New Zealand’s hidden treasures, the town itself is vibrant and the surrounding countryside an adventure playground.
Take the opportunity to come earlier and walk the Abel Tasman or the Queen Charlotte Track. The Local Hosts, Angus Jennings and Kate Ball have organised a fantastic social programme. Sporting events on Sunday afternoon include golf at Nelson Golf Club, and mountain biking in the hills behind the city. Sunday night is a welcome dinner at the famous Nelson Car Museum, with the Gala dinner at Rutherford Hotel on Monday evening.
There will be local walks and morning tea for partners on Monday and Tuesday mornings, hosted by the local surgeons so please join in and make the meeting a real celebration.

Please book your accommodation now. Nelson is an extremely popular tourist destination in November. There is limited space at the Rutherford Hotel but there are many nearby motels and Air B&B’s. Search the accommodation tab of the event website to book local hotels with our accommodation partners or use the many small boutique hotels in the area that might suit you better.

I really look forward to seeing you in Nelson in November. It promises to be an extremely stimulating meeting and celebration of what we do so well.