WONCA Europe

I was fortunate enough to be asked to attend WONCA 2006 in Florence in my capacity as one of the GP registrar observers on council.

The opening ceremony on Sunday evening lasted almost as long as the conference! The event started with speeches from everyone linked to the conference and their relatives, and ended with a curious dance troupe performing a number of unique pieces. In between Dr Sam Everington was awarded with the WONCA 5-star award and gave an excellent overview of life in East London.

The conference proper had some excellent parallel sessions (particularly good education-related workshops from EURACT) and very long breaks — needed for the incredible length of time it took to get an incredibly small cup of espresso. Evenings involved rare beef and good red wine at drinks receptions or the chairman's dinner.

This was my first WONCA experience and it was a good experience. There are a lot of people in Europe passionate about good quality general practice, particularly the young GPs and trainees in VdGM. General practice has a strong future.

• © British Journal of General Practice, 2006.