This Winter Issue is actually sub-titled ‘The Conference Special’. 2012 was a great year for sports therapy. Wheels are turning all around us, moving the profession ever forward. Our Summer Issue of 2012, and its feature article – The United States of Sports Therapy – generated a fair amount of positive interest, but beyond that, 2012 saw a certain consolidation of presence. As sports therapy is so establishing itself – not only in health, fitness and sporting settings, and in collaborative networks, but also importantly in academic settings – it is only fitting (and fantastic) that now in our calendars, we can all mark out one or two or more sports therapy specific conferences to attend. Such gatherings of like-minded professionals, students, practitioners, researchers, specialists and protagonists can only elevate knowledge, practice and patient/athlete outcomes. So much can be gained from attending a good conference, and for this issue of the JST, we can celebrate just that.

On Thursday 7th June, undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics and professionals from the fields of sports therapy, physiotherapy and strength and conditioning travelled from across the country to Moulton College, Northamptonshire for a conference focussing on the themes of ‘Applied Rehabilitation and Sports Performance’.

This popular annual conference, which this year was attended by around 500 delegates, is hosted by Sports Therapy Education, and held at the London Marriot Hotel (Heathrow) over a full day. The conference is aimed at sports therapists, physiotherapists and all those working within sports medicine and musculoskeletal therapy settings. The conference has a reputation for being host to leading experts in the sports medicine field including physicians, academics and practitioners attempting to highlight the most up to date evidence in order to emphasize developments and best possible practice. Professor Graham N. Smith, rehabilitation and sports injury consultant, Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, and Chairman of the Society of Sports Therapists, was master of ceremonies for the day, and provided insightful welcoming and closing remarks.

In June 2012, Coventry University hosted its first joint Strength and Conditioning and Sports Therapy Research Symposium, in conjunction with the Journal of Sports Therapy. Around 50 delegates from both disciplines attended the event, and keynote speakers included Professor Erika Zemkova of Comenius University, Slovakia; Dr Mark Willems from the University of Chichester; Dr Jeremy Moody from Cardiff Metropolitan University, and Dr Andy Drake from Leeds Metropolitan University. Presentations ranged from eccentric exercise in the elderly, to functional movement screening in children, via the training of UK elite race walkers, as well as a number of poster presentations. Abstracts of all presentations are published in the Winter Issue of the JST, and hopefully readers will find them both stimulating and informative. Delegates were enthusiastic about the event, and it is hoped that it can be repeated annually as it presents an opportunity for the professions to collaborate and learn from each other as well as developing their profile in a wider context.

ECOSEP is a medical speciality society, comprised of physician members within the European community. The mission of the College is to advance the competency of sports physicians, and support the process for best possible care for their athletes and the citizens of Europe, by providing continuing education and publishing research. ECOSEP understands that each country within the European Community very rightly sets its own standards, but is aware that, as an example in Britain, the Faculties of Sports and Exercise Medicine (FSEM) have been established, and that the National Health Service (NHS) has accepted sports and exercise medicine as a recognised specialty, and instituted a training programme which leads to consultant status.

The Journal of Sports Therapy (JST) Website Launch and CPD Afternoon was held at the Austin Court Conference Centre, Birmingham on July 9th 2012. The rationale for this event was twofold; simply to gather in order to celebrate the development, and provide the ‘live launch’, for the new and bespoke JST website; and to provide an afternoon of high calibre presentations in a central UK location for the purpose of continued professional development.