The collaboration between ECMH and Evipro started in 2013, when the first European Conference on Mental Health Nursing in Turku, Finland was organised. There were over 200 participants from 14 countries in Turku. After Turku the conference was opened to everyone involved in mental health field, and the name was changed to the current form: European Conference on Mental Health. In 2014, the conference was held in Tallinn, Estonia. The number of participants increased a bit, but the biggest change was, that now there where people over 29 different countries. Changing the conference venue to different European cities has been a great solution, since people all over the world have had better opportunities to participate. In Riga, Latvia 2015 there where already participants from 42 countries. The following conferences were organized in Prague, Berlin and in Split. During the years, the ECMH community grew, and our regular participants started to talk about ECMH family. And that is how we have wanted to organize the conference: keeping the threshold low for all to participate but also maintaining the scientific quality of the conference. The conference in Belfast 2019 had the most participants ever in ECMH’s history. It’s like people had known that these live conferences are not possible for some time… Due to the pandemic we had to adjust, and the conference was online two years in a row. According to the feedback the online conferences still managed to maintain that special ECMH atmosphere. Nevertheless, we are more than ready to see you all live in Lisbon, I hope you are ready too. After the last online conference, we started to think what was the most memorable conference for us organizers.
Liisa: I have many options, but I say Prague. We had a very special conference venue in this magical capital of Czech Republic and amazing garden of Hotel Grand Mark for Banquet Dinner. We made friends with local partners like a group of volunteers who have followed us in other conferences to assist conference delegates.
Lauri: I must say I have warm connection to all the cities we have been. But I must admit that Belfast was special. It was a place that was not the most obvious option for a conference city. But when we visited there, we immediately fell in love with the atmosphere, friendly people, and the amazing landscapes in Northern Ireland.
Virve: This is difficult, but I have to say Split, because our International Ukulele Orchestra played there for the first time. Singing together with our conference participants created an atmosphere of joy and togetherness. Also, the hotel and the premises around the hotel were beautiful.
What is the most memorable ECMH moment for you?