Willkommen in Berlin

will include live surgical presentations, lectures, symposia and practical seminars. However, there will also be aspects that focus on the global and philanthropic nature of the SIU. ‘We will have the usual things, such as talks on bladder and prostate cancer’, points out Professor Thüroff. ‘But, we will also have presentations on urogenital fi stula and tropical infections, things that are not so prominent at other meetings. The scientifi c programme refl ects our mission to improve the training and teaching in Africa and the developing world’. One of the highpoints will be the release of new fi ndings and recommendations on prostate cancer from the International Consultation on Urologic Diseases (ICUD), chaired by Gerald Andriole from the USA and Manfred Wirth from Germany. Delegates arriving early can also take in the Fifth Congress of the World Urologic Oncology Federation, held 15–16 October. Chaired by Laurence Klotz in Toronto, Canada, the theme of this year’s event is ‘Urologic Oncology in the Aging Population’. Topics will include prostate cancer prevention and treatment, biomarkers, and bladder cancer. 3000 lucky delegates will also receive a USB memory stick containing nearly 300 installments of the Surgical Atlas, regularly published in the BJUI. According to Professor Thüroff, delegates will receive a special voucher when they collect their registration materials. They can then redeem it at the Storz exhibition booth for their Surgical Atlas. Of course, no Congress would be complete without a full social programme. At the opening ceremonies, delegates The Société Internationale d’Urologie (SIU) has held its annual Congress in some of the most interesting and cosmopolitan cities around the world: Marrakech, Paris, London and Stockholm, just to name a few. But, perhaps this year’s venue in Berlin, Germany, embodies the true spirit of the SIU. In 1961, 50 years ago, the East German government built the heavily-guarded Berlin Wall. The Wall fell in 1989; an act of unifi cation for all German residents and the world. At this year’s Congress, SIU will do something similar by fi nalising a formal cooperative agreement with several major urological societies, including the AUA and the European Association of Urology. ‘The globalization that occurs in fi nance and politics must occur in urology’, says outgoing president Joachim W. Thüroff from Mainz, Germany. ‘We are trying to do this by cooperating and forming partnerships with the other societies’.