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The AOFAS Orthopod-Cast
AOFAS Annual Meeting & IFFAS 9th Biennial Meeting 2026— The Biggest Program Ever
00:14:39
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to AOFAS Ortho Podcast, where leaders in foot and ankle orthopedic surgery discuss the issues that affect you and your practice. Please note that the views expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent the views of the AOFAS or its members.
- [00:27]
B
This is Joe park from the AOFAS Ortho Podcast Committee with our special guest today, Truett Cooper, who's my partner at uva, who's the CO program chair with me for our annual meeting coming up in Seattle, as well as Sheldon Lynn, who is our president of the AOFAS from Rutgers in New Jersey, as well as Mark Easley, who is the president of IFS this year, who obviously is from Duke University. So thank you everyone for joining us. And essentially this is a hype session to convince our members and everyone else to come to the annual meeting. So, Truett, why don't you get started? If you could just go over the basic format of this combined meeting. But thank you all for joining us.
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C
Yeah, so thank you, Joe and everyone. This is super exciting. You know, this year we are fortunate to have the combined AOFAS and IFFAs or IFS meeting together in Seattle. It's been a while since we've done this. It was back in Chicago and I think that was immensely successful. I think this has the potential to be one of the best foot and ankle meetings of all time anywhere. We are going to have an excellent group of presenters internationally. I think this is going to be fantastic and I'm really excited about it. Dr. Easley is president of IFAS and he's here with us tonight. He's going to be helping to make this such an international event. I don't think we've had anything like this and I think this is going to be the best one yet.
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D
Great.
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B
Mark, would you mind giving us some background of IFAs and just how our two societies are related and collaborate together in this type of a meeting?
- [01:55]
D
Yeah, sure, Joe. Thanks. So this is Mark Easley. I'm excited, too. Just like Truett, I have the same enthusiasm. I do think this is an outstanding opportunity for learning and a chance to see colleagues and meet new colleagues from around the world. But IFAS has been around for quite some time now. So it's the International Federation of Foot and Ankle Societies. And what that means is we have our North American Federation and that is our AOFAs, and then the COFAs, too. Right? The COFAs, the Canadian group, and that is one entity. There are five different federations from around the world and one is Latin American. And so that's the Flama SIP group, which is in South America. And then we also have the European group. So EFAs, which I think most of you are familiar with, is another group. And then we also have the Asian federation. And then more recently was that is the Southern Federation, which comprises South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. So they'll be represented as well. So, really excited about it. And I can tell you in advance that our international colleagues from those different federations are really excited to join us. Many of them do. Anyway, they come to the AOFAS meeting. But this year's particularly special because they will be featured just like we will be and our colleagues will all be able to collaborate. So excited. And again, I share Truitt's enthusiasm.
- [03:18]
C
I think one thing that's maybe a little bit, you know, exciting and unique is we're really trying to blend them together and not have two separate meetings. There's one registration covers both meetings. We're having a joint gala together. We can talk a little bit about that in a minute. But I think the goal, you know, and our hope is that this is going to really blend together as both an AOFAs and an IFAs meeting together, and not two separate meetings.
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B
Yeah. And Sheldon Lynn has joined us too, and, you know, obviously so proud of what you've achieved and getting to this point. What are you looking forward to most, Sheldon, about this meeting?
- [03:52]
E
I am so excited to have the AFAs and IFAs in Seattle. Basically, it's a city on the water. Stunning scenery, great, delicious food. We're gonna have four days, folks, of some international distinguished speakers. I think that one of the highlights is working with President Mark Easley, Chris Coetzia, Monica Valesky and Luchon. By working our federation and subsequently bringing all these international societies together, we are going to see the best foot and ankle for the entire world. And I think such a ideal location, great weather. I want everybody to come enjoy, come and enjoy Seattle. It has so much to offer, I think. Joe, can you provide more details of other special things we're doing? Like you mentioned the gala herd and our guest speakers and other things.
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B
Yeah. So our gala is going to be held at the Chihuly Glass and Art Museum.
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C
Yeah, he's by the way, well known artist. I mean, I can recall, you know, 20 years ago almost seeing an exhibit he had in Columbus, Ohio. And it was just remarkable. So I think that's going to be right.
- [04:55]
E
The Dale Chihuly Glass is well known and you can see examples, only small pieces of this for Example, in Las Vegas, we can go to Atlantic City at the Borgata. But I'm not here to advertise for these little pieces. We're going to see the actual entire museum, all his beautiful art inside as well as outside with this greenhouse. Food band, folks, it's going to be the highlight of this decade, this Dale Chihuly Glass Museum. Truly something that you got to come. And I really am really honored to be present this year and be part of this. We also have other guest speakers, too. Joe Truitt.
- [05:35]
C
Yeah. So the Ken Johnson speaker this year, which is awarded to an international guest who's really accomplished a lot in honor of Dr. Ken Johnson, is going to be Lyndon Mason from Liverpool, uk, I think probably most well known for his work on posterior malleolar fractures, but he's done really a lot of other work and a lot of things. He's won the Robert Jones Gold Medal award at one point. So we all know who Robert Jones is from Orthopedics, but he's a dynamic speaker. He's going to be great. That'll be on Friday morning, and that'll be really nice because we're going to have the Ken Johnson session honoring him. But it's really, you know, a session on sort of controversial topics, but an international flair. And then right after that, we're going to transition into sort of formally the iffas. Ifas part of the meeting. So I think that'll be nice. And then the presidential keynote speaker this year is Dr. David Yeager. I think a lot of people would be familiar with him. He's a psychologist from University of Texas, but most well known for a recent book, sort of about how to motivate young people, but also how to motivate teams. And it's called 10 to 25 the science of Motivating Young People. But he's done a lot of other work on just the whole mentor mindset, you know, how to set up systems and how to build up people around you. And then also he's done a lot of work on the growth mindset and dealing with failure, which I think is really important for all of us. So I. I think he's a great speaker. If you've ever heard him talk. I think that'll be really exciting. So those are two of the big speakers we have.
- [06:57]
B
And I think, as Truett said, too, and Mark easily mentioned, we're trying to sort of blend the two meetings together. So we're trying to have international speakers in the AOFAS sections, and then we're trying to have our AOFS speakers in the international sessions as well. And basically we're trying to not have big literature reviews, but to have really case based discussions from experts. I've learned the most by just hearing them talk about their practices and what works, what doesn't. And that's how we're trying to format this. So shorter talks, a lot of discussion and cases, and hopefully lots of audience interaction.
- [07:34]
E
That's great. I think that the key thing is this, folks. You will see your friends, your colleagues, all these international experts, as well as friends from around the world come and join us. This should be a great event, a fun event, and I truly look forward to it this year. My year has been focused on research and Residents R squared once again. We're going to have the resident scholars come in, be with us, see our meeting. There's nothing like exciting the young, and I really look forward to that as well. And furthermore, there's also going to be the medical students as well, doing their soul bones. So these are a lot of fun things that are going on concurrently. But please also don't forget our exhibitors and our business colleagues as well. We invite them and we look forward to seeing them as well.
- [08:25]
D
And I'm really excited about the blending that was already mentioned. So the format's going to be that there'll be something for everybody. And the educational program, the free paper sessions, for instance, have really been intertwined. So there'll be multiple free paper sessions, There'll be simultaneous free paper sessions. So we'll organize it in a way. True and Joe are working very hard at this. But organize it in a way that you can really see all of your interests, catch all the papers you want and not miss out. And there'll be many opportunities to attend the free paper sessions and we'll really stagger them or place them in a manner that you don't really overlap with two common themes at the same time. But there'll be just a lot of education going on simultaneously throughout the meeting. And then we will also blend those with the symposia. There are numerous symposia, and so the AOFAS symposia that you're accustomed to will be there, but with some international flavor too. And then when we have the IFAs portion of the meeting, it just flows, as Truett said, directly into that second half of the meeting. And there'll be our AOFAS colleagues mixed in with this international group that I mentioned previously.
- [09:38]
C
Yeah, I think the varieties can be amazing and I think just the volume is Huge. So you can choose at some portions. We're gonna have three concurrent symposia, three concurrent paper sessions. So you can really pick and choose what suits you. Overall, it's going to be 24 paper sessions and I think 26 symposias. So the probably the biggest number ever. We're also going to have 100 posters, audio posters. So I think there's something for everyone. And you know, we've talked all about it's gonna be a ton of fun too, right? We're gonna have fun. I can think back to being a resident and being brought to the AOFAs and how much fun it was. You know, we'll have the opening reception with the industry group and that's fun. And then we'll have the resident reception, which I've always enjoyed being a resident mentor. So don't forget to sign up for that. Know everybody, please volunteer to support our residents. I think that's a huge component of this. And then, you know, we'll have other events and then we'll have the gala on Friday night. So a lot of social activities. The Young Physicians Committee is trying to bring back the fun run that they did in Savannah. We're so packed. We're having a tough time figuring out when to put it. And so there's a lot of just fun camaraderie events as well as just the pure educational events.
- [10:45]
D
Yeah, and I think Joe said that well too. So TRUA just mentioned how fully packed the program is. And I think that allows everybody to find what they need. But it won't be overwhelming because in doing so with the smaller groups, there'll be much more opportunity for discussion. I like the case based format, but the focus is going to be on the interaction. And I don't mean interaction just between faculty members, but to get the audience involved. And so the exciting part is that if you have multiple concurrent sessions, it tends to make for smaller groups and allows for much more discussion with audience participation. And we're also working on a translation program, so that should work. I'm really excited about it. So most important, when you come to the meeting, bring your own earbuds or AirPods or headsets. Just bring those with you. And then we'll explain to you our technical, our AV team will explain to you how to connect. And then irrespective of what, what language you speak, you should be able to directly interact with this translation ongoing, real time. And that's exciting for me. It's really exciting because there's so many international speakers that just Master the English language. It's great. We're always fortunate. We're so lucky as AOFAS members that most meetings are held in English. But a lot of times you lose some of that subtlety or some of the quick answers, the real time answers you want to hear. So with this translational program, we should be able to make that a lot more real. The answers will be truly what the speakers want to say. And for those that don't, maybe have the full command of the English language, you'll really get to hear what they want to express, just like you could in English. But the key, the focus is going to be on interaction. As Joe said, short presentations, lots of discussion, and with the emphasis on audience participation.
- [12:44]
C
Yeah, I think that's a great point. I think looking at the schedule earlier today, I think almost every symposium has at least 20 to 30 minutes of discussion and cases built in. So we all know sometimes speakers go along, right? And we're up against the time and there's time for like one audience question and then we have to run out to the next thing. And so one of our goals was not to have that happen. And so I think every symposium has a minimum of 20 minutes built in at the end for discussion and questions. So plenty of opportunity for audience participation. We're going to have some ask the expert sessions in the industry session so that we could bring cases if you want to ask somebody. So lots of opportunity for just interaction. Nobody wants to sit there and hear a literature review. We don't need that. And we're working really hard not to have that.
- [13:28]
B
Yeah, and we mentioned this before, but again, thank you very much to our industry sponsors. We could never hold a meeting like this without your help. And, you know, registration is open as of April 22. Not sure when this podcast will be released, and early registration ends July 22. So the more people sign up, the more we can prepare for this amazing meeting. And just want to thank all our guests today for joining us. And I hope we get to see all of you guys in Seattle for our annual meeting. But any last words for the Seattle's
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C
an awesome place to have a meeting. There's tons of hotels nearby. There's tons of places to walk. It's such an easy place to have a meeting. So we're really lucky.
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D
I just want to go to the fish market and see the fish.
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C
Me and you together. Let's go. We'll see. You can throw them the farthest.
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E
I look forward to seeing everybody in Seattle, folks. Cheers.
- [14:19]
B
Thank you, guys.
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C
Thanks.
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E
Thank you.
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D
Thanks.
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A
Thank you for listening to the AOFAS Ortho Podcast, a Convey Med production. To learn more about joining our dynamic community of highly skilled orthopedic specialists, visit aofas.org.