ANZUP ASM: As it Happened

ANZUPx – Making ideas matter

For the first time at an ANZUP ASM, a new style of presentation was introduced with ANZUPx. ANZUPx featured a line-up of renowned national and international speakers, handpicked by Convenor Henry Woo for their expertise, personality and compelling ideas. Seven presenters took to the stage over two sessions (Sunday and Tuesday) to deliver a series of engaging, dynamic and thought-provoking talks.

Sticking to only two rules – the subject must relate to the ASM theme ‘Putting People First’ and be no longer than 18 minutes – each speaker embraced the challenge to bring a topic of their choosing to life.

Tackling the tough opening spot, Fran Boyle captivated the audience as she led them on a journey from the patient’s perspective to a personal revelation of her own health experiences.

It was a standard that was maintained by every ANZUPx talk that followed. Ben Tran channelled Justin Timberlake to make data anything but boring, Laurence Albiges talked about a revolution led by the power of mentoring and Chris Sweeney tapped into his Adelaide roots to highlight when more is less and less is more in prostate cancer treatment. Monty Pal bridged the gap between the lab and the clinic, Bertrand Tombal peered into the future of academic urology and Venu Chalasani led the room on a journey of enlightenment though clinical trials.

“Best debates I’ve ever seen. Batman for 2019”

The afternoon session of the final day of the 2018 ASM opened with four crossfire debates pitting some of the finest minds in uro-oncology against each other under the watchful gavel of ‘judge’ Lisa Horvath.

Respected colleagues Monty Pal and Laurence Albiges engaged in some pre-debate friendly fire on Twitter before taking to the stage to argue the CARMENA case – to cut or to TKI? International stars Chris Sweeney and Bertrand Tombal fought hard for intermittent vs continuous ADT for M1 HSPC and Sanchia Aranda and Cathy Mason had equally strong arguments for and against the importance of the social in psycho-social. However, it was Angie Smith and Andrew

Weickhardt who stole the show with a thoroughly entertaining, superhero-themed debate about whether having no bladder is worse than having bladder cancer.

With Shomik Sengupta and many others in the audience live tweeting throughout the action, the debates proved to be an #ANZUP18 highlight.

“Loved the ANZUPx idea! Very inspiring talks” “An outstanding opening” “Love this style of talk – “I’d give Bertrand a much more engaging” higher mark if possible. All excellent!!” ANZUP UPdate Spring 2018 | 7