Helsinki hosting world’s biggest dance health conference

The International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS) brings 400 dance health experts to Helsinki 25-28 October. The IADMS 28th Annual Conference will take place at the Scandic Park Helsinki hotel and marks the first year that it has come to Finland. “We initiated the application process for IADMS four years ago, when it was last held in Europe. It’s great to finally get to host the biggest and most important event in this field. At the same time, it gives us the opportunity to present Finland’s strong expertise in dance medicine and education,” says Johanna Osmala, President of Dance Health Finland. The annual conference aims to promote the health, wellbeing and exercise of professional dancers by developing educational, scientific and medical expertise in this field. “Finnish dance art will also be presented at a special evening gala on Saturday,” Osmala adds. The gala, which is open to everyone, will present both Finnish dance art and the contents of the conference to the general public. Helsinki is on course to host around 300 international association meetings this year and follow a record 2017 year, which saw 367 international association meetings hosted, attended by 72,000 people. Half of all Helsinki’s congresses take place during the summer months, reports Ines Antti-Poika, Convention Director at Helsinki Marketing, who points out that, in terms of the number of delegates, Helsinki overtook Stockholm last year among the Nordic states. ICCA statistics reveal, however, that almost half of all congresses organised in Helsinki are small, with 50 to 150 delegates. Similarly, 49% of congresses in Helsinki are European in scale. Key conference topics for Helsinki are education, culture and management.