Akshara Suresh

Hello everyone, we’re Akshara and Akilesh, and we are running to be your Conference Co-chairs.

Having worked together at this year’s conference and across other societies, we have developed a strong and effective working relationship. This, in combination with our familiarity with recruiting speakers, developing workshops, acquiring sponsorships and increasing outreach, equips us with the necessary experience to make this conference a success!

Whilst maintaining the success of this year, we hope to elevate next year's conference even more through the following novel ideas:

• Increase speaker diversity by leveraging prior connections: Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery are hugely varied specialties so we would want to showcase their full breadth. This year there has been a heavy focus on Interventional Cardiology with certain disciplines being absent, such as Congenital Cardiac Surgery or Heart Failure and Transplant Surgery.
• Shifting timings of workshops: Delegates in hands-on workshops, like CABG, often run out of time. We want to allocate more time to these hands-on workshops, ensuring students have the opportunity to try and complete the procedure.
• Exposure to innovative and emerging surgical techniques: We want to enable delegates to gain first-hand experience with recent innovations in surgical techniques and technology, such as minimally invasive cardiac surgery.
• CPD accreditation: Our conferences in recent years have invited pioneers in their respective fields, as such we believe this should be reflected through CPD points.

With our combined experiences, we possess the skills and qualities necessary to make this conference a success.