UEG Annual Report 2020 - 4

UEG Annual Report 2020
Dear colleagues
and friends!
1
Another year has flown by. This was not a normal year, but likely
the most unusual and challenging year in the lives of most of
us with an unprecedented situation of a still ongoing COVID-19
pandemic causing tough and strange changes in the daily lives of
us all. Usually, we are used to living in an open and global world
with almost no restrictions on travel, international networking
and personal and scientific interaction. Due to global and
local restrictions this almost came to a complete stop and was
extremely challenging for our community. However, the UEG
community quickly learned to find new ways of exchanging and
networking. We began sharing relevant information with online
conferences, webinars, video meetings, phone calls and other
ways. Initially, most of us were hoping that this unprecedented
situation would only last for a few weeks or months, but learned
fast that we would likely be challenged for a longer time and
would need to adapt most of our plans, ideas and concepts to
the new situation with a lot of uncertainties regarding health,
finance, science, education and also our daily lives. We had to
re-arrange, delay and even postpone most of our activities and
had to develop new concepts to serve our community. The new
" reality " called for virtual meetings, webinars, virtual congresses
and other virtual twists of our numerous and increasing digital
offers throughout the past year and the past months of 2021. I
am very grateful to my dedicated volunteer colleagues and our
professional staff in Vienna, who have worked hard to develop
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new digital formats for sharing science, advancing research, and
supporting continuous medical education.
UEG as an umbrella organisation represents an international
and diverse community of more than 50,000 people interacting
together, talking to each other, connecting and sharing ideas,
knowledge and science in the broad field of digestive health. I
am personally convinced that UEG is the place where all digestive
healthcare professionals can make connections, collaborate,
help each other and work together towards a brighter future for
our field. Despite facing numerous obstacles and uncertainties
due to the outbreak of COVID-19, we were able to meet and
connect in different ways and to adapt to ongoing and ever new
challenges. Our minds were very inventive and UEG's services
to the community were appreciated and recognised even more
than they were before the pandemic. With joint efforts, especially
from my colleagues in the Scientific Committee, but also from
my dear friends on all other committees as well as our dedicated
team in Vienna, we've made it possible to support our community
with a broad spectrum of educational activities and transforming
our annual highlight events UEG Week and UEG Postgraduate
Teaching into virtual meetings in a new virtual world. Our
annual UEG Week has been and continues to be one of the most
important and most visible activities of UEG. The preparations
for our first UEG Week Virtual required all the imagination, new
UEG Annual Report 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of UEG Annual Report 2020
