The 43rd annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Pediatric Surgeons Pramod S. Puligandla ⁎ The Division of Pediatric General Surgery, The Montreal Children's Hospital, Montreal, QC Canada H3H1P3 Received 23 January 2012; accepted 26 January 2012 The 43rd annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Pediatric Surgeons (CAPS) was held in our nation's capital at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, from September 22 to 24, 2011. The hotel facilities were fabulous, and the quality of the program was superb, much to the credit of the program chair, Dr Sarah Bouchard, and her committee. Thirty-two oral articles and 33 posters were presented. Each presentation was of very high quality, and lively discussion often ensued, as is habit at CAPS. Arlene Ein was invaluable in ensuring the smooth transition of the different components of the meeting, both scientific and social. Local host Dr Juan Bass did an excellent job making sure that the conference attendees had a memorable and pleasurable visit to Ottawa. The 2nd CAPS Educational Symposium on “Evidence- Based Surgery” was held on Thursday afternoon, September 22, 2011. The symposium organizers Drs Peter Fitzgerald, Ted Gerstle, and Pramod Puligandla invited 2 international leaders to provide their views on the topic. Financial support for this event was provided by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant from McMaster University. Dr Mohit Bhandari (McMaster University) presented an inspiring talk on “Advancing Evidence-Based Surgical Care.” This was followed by a panel discussion on how CAPS could move toward improving the quality of submissions to our meeting. The panel provided the audience with several “provocative” statements to drive the discussion. Clearly, there was consensus that more prospective studies were key to improving the overall quality of the program. The symposium ended with another inspiring and informative presentation by Dr Shoo Lee (University of Toronto), titled “Evidence-Based Practice for Improving Care.” The overall evaluations of the educational symposium were extremely positive, with plans to repeat it in 2013. Conference attendees then returned for a fabulous Welcome Reception later that evening. The scientific program for this meeting had many highlights. The morning program on Friday, September 23, 2011, consisted of 2 sessions of oral presentations followed by the presidential address by Dr Jean-Martin Laberge. The afternoon commenced with the annual CAPSNet Update by Dr Erik Skarsgard followed by oral poster presentations. Subsequently, Dr Frank Guttman provided the audience with an historical presentation titled “Bytown as a choice as the Nation's Capital.” Dr Prem Puri, an invited guest and recipient of an honorary CAPS membership during the meeting, teamed up with Dr Jacob Langer for a lively session on “Complicated Cases of Hirschsprung Disease.” This robust session ended with the CAPS traveling resident presentations by Drs Monica Langer, Emily Christison- Lagay, and Andrea Lo as well as a WOrld Federation of Associations of Pediatric Surgeons (WOPAFS) update by Dr David Sigalet. Friday evening was free for conference attendees to enjoy the restaurants and nightlife of Ottawa. Saturday , September 24, 2011, was another busy day. The morning session consisted of more oral and poster presentations. Dr Marcelo Martinez-Ferro of Buenos Aires gave the Journal of Pediatric Surgery/Dr Fred MacLeod lecture with a stirring talk on “International Innovations In Pediatric Minimally Invasive Surgery: The Argentine Experience.” I do not think that anyone in the audience will ever view an “ant” in the same light again! After lunch was the “2 minute–2 slides” session and the final oral presentation session. The scientific session was formally closed by President Laberge. ⁎ Tel.: +1 514 412 4438; fax: +1 514 412 4289. E-mail address: pramod.puligandla@mcgill.ca. www.elsevier.com/locate/jpedsurg 0022-3468/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2012.01.063 Journal of Pediatric Surgery (2012) 47, 1005–1006