Welcome to the ACEM Winter Symposium 2021

Symposium Update 16/07/2021

Given the continued pandemic uncertainty, travel and gathering rules may change at short notice. We are closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation across Australia, and New Zealand and our Symposium planning is being shaped by the latest advice from Australian Health and Foreign Affairs authorities and direction from Queensland Health on hosting conferences and events. We intend that the Symposium will continue to run as a hybrid event, and we will communicate with registered delegates early next week. 


2020: Never in our lifetime has our sense of stability been so challenged. The global pandemic and other events have unveiled harsh realities and inequities we can no longer choose not to see.

What can we learn from extreme events that will help us prepare for the future? How do we continue to connect with our humanity, even in a crisis?

We invite you to embark on the journey of becoming comfortable in the discomfort of knowing that all is not well. Emergency medicine specialists don’t deal in routine. We are trained to embrace uncertainty. We thrive in it. We want you to BE. HERE. NOW. Face what is  - who we are as individuals, practitioners and as a college  - in the context of being in and of our world.

The ACEM Winter Symposium 2021 is a chance to showcase what we do best, how we flourish in times of change, and find opportunities where others only see threat. With a focus on issues relevant to the health of the individual, our crumbling environment and the entrenched inequities of today’s society we want to examine how vulnerabilities amplify risk and how resilience is an act of resistance.

We want to create a space for discussion, reflection and introspection that allows ingenuity, innovation and creativity to shape our practice of emergency medicine. We want to move you out of your comfort zone as we explore how ethics, evidence and experience will support and nourish us in an illuminated new normal.

The ACEM Winter Symposium 2021 will be held on the lands of the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji and Yirrganydji people, in the beautiful city of Cairns, where the rainforest meets the reef. Join us in this special place to discover how fragile reality is, just beneath the pristine surface.

A hybrid symposium

ACEM and the Local Organising Committee will be offering a hybrid Symposium model, which will consist of a face-to-face Symposium in Cairns coupled with an online program so that both in-person and remote delegates can attend. Both options will provide delegates with keynote and invited speakers, oral presentations, workshops, panel discussions, networking opportunities as well as a physical and virtual exhibition. 

By offering a hybrid model we can be more inclusive and welcoming to a larger community who may not be able to attend in person due to travel, health, budget or other restrictions. Of course, in exploring more hybrid aspects, we aim to preserve the diversity, inclusion and accessibility of any physical event. 

Any physical restrictions that may be in place in July 2021 will dictate how much of a physical/online event versus entirely online event will take place, and may mean that the number of face-to-face Symposium attendees will be capped at a specified limit – we encourage you to register as early as possible to secure your place.