The 25th ENOTHE Annual Meeting, one of the most significant events of the Occupation Therapy scientific field, was successfully held on 17-19 October in Athens, in the presence of more than 350 participants and speakers, from 36 countries and 113 universities. This year’s conference was hosted by Metropolitan College’s Department of Occupational Therapy accredited by WFOT (World Federation of Occupational Therapists).
“Sustainability Matters” was the conference’s main theme, including related to OT educational methods oriented at increasing student engagement and sustainable learning, as well as recent scientific developments.
The Conference was held with the presence of prestigious personalities of the Occupational Therapy scientific field. More specifically, Dr. Marie-Antoinette Minis, ENOTHE President, Stephanie Seger, COTEC President (Council of Occupational Therapists for European Countries), Samantha Shann, Vice President Finance WFOT (World Federation of Occupational Therapists). In addition, Voutsinos Georgios, Secretary General for Vocational Education, Training and Life Long Learning at Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs opened the event with his welcome speech. Mr Voutsinos was followed by Professor Dinos Arkoumanis Professor Dinos Arcoumanis, Chairman of the Academic Board, Metropolitan College and Dr. Siaperas Panagiotis, member of ENOTHE Βoard and Programme Leader of MSc Rehabilitation.
A very special moment during the conference’s opening ceremony was the performance by ESTIA- Care Centre for people with mental retardation– who entertained the audience with songs written by important Greek composers.
The conference was focused on sustainability issues, including speeches, paper presentations, workshops that highlighted educational methods, practices related to OT education and the development of an OT curriculum according to the new challenges.
Many of the issues above were highlighted by the Conference’s six international keynote speakers. These were Mr. Theodosis Pelegrinis , Emeritus Professor at the University of Athens and Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Exeter, England, Nadine BlankVoort, instructor and Coordinator for the Internalization and Diversity issues at the OT Department of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), Elisabeth Fattinger, senior lecturer and researcher at the FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences (FHJ), Filip Dejonskheere, International Coordinator at the OT Department of Antervelde University College in Belgium, Liliya Todorova, Associate Professor at the University of Ruse in Bulgaria and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Public Health and Health Care and Hans Jonsson, Professor in Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science at University of Southern Denmark in Odense and Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.
Metropolitan College was represented by distinguished students and professors. In the first place, there were many students who voluntarily participated actively at the organization of the conference. Additionally, OT professors presented their research or curated workshops and students presented their academic work under the guidance of their supervisors.
In the context of hosting ENOTHE’s Annual Meeting, Metropolitan College organized a welcome event exclusively for the students who attended the conference, which took place the day before the official opening of the conference at Maroussi Campus. During this event, hundreds of Occupational Therapy students from around the world – including members of SPOT EUROPE -the student platform created to encourage connection between OT students from all over Europe- along with Metropolitan College students, participated in networking activities and experiential workshops.
