International Symposia and Congresses

One of the main objectives of the ILAE was to disseminae knowledge and learning between medical professionals working in the field of epilepsy. This was achieved by holding international meetings, which evolved into international annual conferences. From 1969 such conferences were organised in tandem with the IBE (International Bureau for Epilepsy)
Meetings were held roughly every 4 years until 1977 and known as 'the quadrennial meetings of the ILAE'. In 1978, with the formation of Epilepsy International as an umbrella organisation, the conferences were held under its egis and now became an annual event. The first Epilepsy Interntational Symposium was held in 1978 and its numbering followed on from the sequence of IBE meetings. Hence the 1978 symposium was numbered as the 10th Epilepsy Interntational Symposium. After the dissolution of Epilepsy International from 1985 the meetings reverted back to being jointly organised by the ILAE and IBE and were renamed from 1989 as International Epilepsy Congresses. These meetings were held bi-annually. The term 'Congress' was used from 1981 onwards as it was felt that the meetings had outgrown being symposia and could now count as being called congresses.