Meeting 2016 Bordeaux
Hosting in Bordeaux the annual conference of this prestigious society, CORLAS (Collegium ORL Amicitiae Sacrum), is a huge privilege for the French group, the ENT School of Bordeaux launched by Professor Georges Portmann and so brilliantly pursued by Professor Michel Portmann.
Georges Portmann was among the founders of the Collegium and organized twice the conference in his city, in 1931 and 1956. Michel Portmann exerted the function of CORLAS Treasurer for a quarter of century (1966-1990) and then passed on this responsibility to Jean-Marie Aran for eight years (1990-1999). Paul van den Broek, then General Secretary (1987-2000), was kind enough to ask me to succeed to Jean-Marie as Treasurer, thus allowing me to join the Board and start working with Pekka Karma.
The CORLAS meeting organized in Lyon by Alain Morgon in 1999, with it’s so particular French touch throughout the conference and the post-conference tour in the Beaujolais, is still in the memory of the many attendees present.
The years during which I had the immense honor to act as General Secretary (2008-2015) have considerably influenced the course of my career and I am greatly indebted to the CORLAS French, honorary and non-honorary, members who supported me during this period so fortunate for me. Without their help, in particular that of Olivier Sterkers, I would not have been able to imagine organizing this conference in Bordeaux.
For decades Bordeaux has attracted numerous tourists knowledgeable in wine. With the remarkable work undertaken by Alain Juppé, Mayor of the city since 1995, the city of Bordeaux nowadays also seduces worldwide visitors for the beauty of many stone-buildings, the delicate homogeneity of its avenues, the renovated banks of its Garonne River. Water and soil have sculpted the organization of the vineyards, Saint-Emilion and Pomerol on the right bank of the Dordogne, Medoc on the left bank of the Gironde estuary, and the trio Graves, Pessac-Léognan and Sauternes on the left bank of the Garonne, south to the city.
The President and the Vice-President of the Bordeaux conference along with the city of Bordeaux will do their best to provide our friends from all around the world with a warm and hearty welcome in August 2016.
