Bringing the World of Rehabilitation Technologies Under One Roof

Challenge

The International Consortium for Rehabilitation Technology (ICRT) was born as a result of the struggle in the field to obtain good scientific content in one place. Thus, three societies – the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society (IFESS), the International Consortium on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), and the International Industry Society in Advanced Rehabilitation Technology (IISART), joined hands under the umbrella of ICRT to organise a festival of multiple events that would serve as a platform where all players in the field could be brought together to present and exchange ideas, receive feedback on their work, and build long term partnerships.

This is the second time that the Kenes M+ team is organising RehabWeek, following the 2017 edition in London. After welcoming 1,200 attendees and praising the 2017 edition as the most successful to date, the pressure was on for Toronto in 2019.

Solution

This is the fourth edition of RehabWeek, and the first time that six societies organised the event together. Apart from the partners in ICRT, the Kenes M+ team supported the communication with three national societies – the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM), the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA), and the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO), who supported the event and organised their annual meetings within the RehabWeek dates.

RehabWeek has now become a substantial platform based on collaboration between different players in rehabilitation technology, providing a playground for attendees to meet with peers from across disciplines, instead of having multiple competing events striving for the attention of the same participants. By organising all events together and bringing their different flavours forward, it is ensured that the experience will be different every time and that it will challenge all delegates towards advancing the field and thinking outside-the-box.

Outcomes

RehabWeek is the only event that is backed up by so many reputable societies. In 2019, there were six organisations behind the event, more than 40 workshops, and 484 poster abstracts presented during the event. RehabWeek 2019 was the biggest event in the history of the series with 1,500 participants and delegates from over 60 different countries.

Martina Spiess, Secretary ICRT commented: The team from Kenes M+ was amazing! Whenever we came with one of our special requests that had to do with bringing so many societies together, they responded “no problem Martina, we can figure it out”. And they did!