Registration opened Monday for the fall virtual group meeting, to be held online Sept. 23-26. Sign up now! It’s free for everyone and registration is easy. Just visit the meeting website, select your sessions, and you’re all set.

As you can see, we’ve got a full slate of meeting sessions. Please note: Because we’re sticking with our Chicago theme (and because it makes sense to split the difference in time zones) all session times are scheduled for Central Time. So be aware of that as you mark your calendars.

Another note: We’ll post the agenda book on the SWOG.org meetings page on Sept. 9. This gives you two weeks prior to the meeting to view session agendas, check out accrual and publications data, and get up to speed on all things SWOG. Since it’s been a year since we’ve met (I still find that too hard to believe), we’re creating a special section in the agenda book with news from SWOG disease and research support committees. Chairs will share the trials and projects they’re excited about, and introduce new members who’ve joined.

Finally, for this virtual gathering, we have unrestricted most sessions, so you should be able to drop into all kinds of committees. However, some committees only come together during group meetings, and this is the only opportunity they have to conduct key business – some of it confidential. Other meetings, like our board of governors, are traditionally closed. In these cases, as noted in the online schedule of events, you’ll see these sessions marked “invite only.”

Some meeting highlights to share:

- On Thursday, Sept. 24 at 10 am CT, I’ll give a one-hour plenary talk with welcomes, goodbyes, group news, and awards from The Hope Foundation for Cancer Research.

- On Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 12 pm CT, the NCORP Research Base Clinical Trials Workshop will go on as usual, and later that day, at 4 pm CT, the NCORP principal investigator meeting will also take place.

- Our “Crush the Crab” 5K run and walk usually happens every spring on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Thanks to COVID, that fun got crushed. That’s why we’re bringing this event back in virtual form. Register here any time before Sept. 19, and run any time between Sept. 12-19. The event is free, but donations and team fundraising are encouraged! We hope to raise $5,000 for our Hope Foundation for Cancer Research. 

- Our former breast cancer committee Chairman Dr. Gabriel Hortobagyi will deliver the annual Robert B. Livingston Lecture in a pre-recorded address. The talk, titled “Progress in Endocrine Therapy: Next Steps” will be shared at the breast cancer committee, and you can watch it anytime online.

Another event I’m really excited about is a panel of SWOG members sponsored by The Hope Foundation. This session is aimed at providing resources and inspiration to you, and especially our young investigators, during this global health crisis. COVID has had a significant, negative impact on a lot of research labs and projects, and the panel will provide insights on how to manage the stress and get your trials back on track. Huge thanks to Jo Horn at Hope, and SWOG vice chair Dr. Dawn Hershman, for organizing that. More details are coming on SWOG.org.

In the meantime, get registered – and get ready for a great meeting. We’ve hired a firm to run our biggest sessions on a new platform, and they’re creating a special website just for SWOG that will help you navigate and join our sessions easily. We’re working hard to build a meeting that gives you value and still brings us all together. The theme of this meeting is definitely maintaining/improving member engagement in these troubled times. “See” you in Chicago!

Other Recent Stories