Elly Plooij-van Gorsel
Maintaining the immediacy of a Live Meeting 
 
Elly Plooij-van Gorsel, President of the NIP
 
On July 11th 2017 you are going to kick off the 15th European Congress of Psychology, the Congress of the European Federation of Psychologists Association (EFPA).
 
1. What convinced and convinces you to meet in Amsterdam this year?

 
The ECP2017 takes place every other year and the organisation of the ECP is granted through a tender procedure to participating member countries ...
 
For the 15th European Congress of Psychology the organisation has been awarded to Belgium and The Netherlands for their outstanding Tender and Bidbook.
In Belgium the Belgian Federation of Psychologists (BFP-FBP) and in the Netherlands the Netherlands Institute of Psychologists (NIP) are responsible for the upcoming edition of ECP 2017.
Both BFP and NIP have mutually agreed to plan this edition in Amsterdam.
 
2. You have chosen the RAI as the home your convention. Why?
 
As the ECP2017 takes place in Amsterdam, we considered the RAI venue to be the best location for ECP2017 due to
 
A. it’s experience in conferences of this size
B. advanced facilities for both the congress and exhibition
C. and above all their central location
 
The ECP 2017 takes place early Summer ‘17 so we are providing a location that serves our guests best:
In between the city centre and airport, close to a wide variety of leisure opportunities and close to all connecting infrastructure such as the train station, airport and public transport etc.
 
3. What is the social and cultural resonance on your conference? Why did you choose the theme to be “Psychology addressing society’s greatest challenges”?
 
Contemporary developments such as:
 
- advancing mobile technology and use of (social) media
- immigration, integration and adaptation
- increasing individualism both personal, educational and in the work environment
 
are triggering the Science of Psychology to rethink it’s application, position, methodologies and protocols.
Within this theme we will provide Keynotes, Oral and Poster presentations and Panel discussions of more than 1400 international scientific contributors,
to asses how Psychology currently addresses these challenges, what areas of opportunity lie ahead and what kind of difficulties these developments may encounter.
Since the Science of Psychology has many different areas of expertise, the ECP provides clear tracks to make sure all disciplines are covered.
 
(Behavioural Psychology, Community Psychology, Psychotherapy, Resilience, Social Psychology, Trauma, Cognitive and Neuropsychology, Psychopathology etc.)
Please refer here for the full program.
 
4. For those delegates who cannot join you in Amsterdam, can they participate remotely / via social media?
 
Over the last 9 months we have reached out to our international community and invited them to be present at the ECP2017.
As digital media becomes more and more accepted in the work field, most of our communication has been done through digital media such as website, e-mail Newsletters and social media.
With over 600 students registered for ECP2017 we think we have succeeded in doing so.
 
For those colleagues not able to attend we have made available all keynotes and abstracts online, provided a mobile app to follow the ECP2017 contents and to participate digitally.
As for the program (opening, keynotes) we will provide a selection of live-sessions through Facebook-Live for participants to follow and interact through social media (Twitter, Facebook).
 
5. What are currently the main challenges for EFPA as an association as well as for the congress?
 
With the upcoming digital platforms for knowledge exchange and paper-publication, we are convinced the ECP is still a medium that is very important.
The ECP however will keep focussing on Quality of the program instead of Quantity of participants and will provide a platform for inspiration, human interaction and network building
based upon topics that arise cross-discipline.