Abstract Submission Guidelines Oral Presentations Poster Presentations Late-Breaking Abstracts
Please click on the boxes below to expand the information to read more:
Find out if you can enter USA: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas.html
For the latest information on COVID related entry requirements, please check the CDC website.
For more information see Requirement for Proof of COVID-19 Vaccination for Air Passengers.
More details to be released closer to the Congress date.
More details to be shared closer to the Congress dates.
Yes, there will be 8 Industry Symposia during the congress week. See sponsors page for more information. All symposia plus the recorded Q&A will be available on-demand in the WMS 2023 Congress platform between 4 and 24 hours after the live stream.
The WMS Industry Symposia sign-up emails sent pre-congress are to gauge interest only. Any registered delegate for the Congress as a whole can attend any of the days and view all of the content. All symposia plus the recorded Q&A will be available on-demand in the Congress platform between 4 and 24 hours after the live stream, so if you miss anything you can still catch up in your own time.
Yes, all our sponsors and exhibitors will be available to chat to in-person at the venue. You can also book a meeting, download information, watch videos, send a chat message or question via the congress app and platform. See a list of our confirmed sponsors here.
Exhibition Opening Hours (although exhibitors may well be at their stands outside these official hours)
Tuesday 15:00-18:00
Wednesday 10:45-20:00
Thursday 11:00-14:45
Friday 10:00-14:00
Saturday Exhibit hall closed. PAC Foyer only
There are many reasons for different organisations to get involved in this very important event. If you are looking to attract new partners and collaborators, generate exposure and raise the profile of your organisation then the WMS Congress is for you. WMS will attract neuromuscular stakeholders from around the world. They will come together online to share, collaborate, learn and inspire. If your organisation is in any way involved in the development of drugs, equipment, research or therapeutic interventions in neuromuscular disorders or interested in the commercialisation of research products then this congress is key.
Please see https://www.wms2023.com/page/sponsors and contact Michelle Naidoo email: sponsorship@worldmusclesociety.org for more information or to discuss your requirements and objectives in more detail.
Outcome notification emails will be sent to abstract submitters in late May/ early June 2023. You now need to prepare to present your abstract at the congress.
For Poster Presentations please go to: https://www.wms2023.com/page/poster-presenters
For Oral presentations please go to: https://www.wms2023.com/page/oral-presenters
If you have any further queries, please contact abstracts@worldmusclesociety.org
For Poster Presentations please go to: https://www.wms2023.com/page/poster-presenters
If you have any further queries, please contact abstracts@worldmusclesociety.org
Registered attendees can chat with the presenter at any time during the congress week via the congress app and virtual platform if you don't catch them by their poster in-person at the venue during the poster sessions.
For Oral Presentations please go to: https://www.wms2023.com/page/oral-presenters
If you have any further queries, please contact speaker@worldmusclesociety.org
Yes. A digital abstract journal will be available to all virtual congress registered delegates from the opening day of the congress.
It is the author’s responsibility to submit a correct abstract; if accepted, any errors in spelling, grammar, or scientific fact may be reproduced as typed by the author. The Programme Committee reserves the right to shorten the abstract title to allow its publication in the congress programme and Neuromuscular Disorders Journal and edit the content to remove acknowledgements and misspellings identified by the Programme Committee.
The abstracts will also be available for WMS members and subscribers to the journal, via the journal, after the congress.
Please contact Patrizia Male by emailing abstracts@worldmusclesociety.org
The full programme with accepted abstract titles will be available on the congress website in June. The late-breaking abstracts will be added to the programme in September.
E-Posters will be available to view on the virtual platform and congress app from the congress opening day.
A digital abstract journal will be available to all congress registered delegates from the congress opening day.
The abstracts will also be available for WMS members and subscribers to the journal, via the journal, after the congress.
WMS does not have a strict policy around encore/previously presented abstracts. In general presentations will be judged according to novelty and interest for the members of the society.
The Journal does not transfer copyright for standalone Abstracts (not a part of the article). They have a non-exclusive license to publish those Abstracts. So, the Author may present/submit their abstract at other conferences.
The congress virtual platform will open from 16:00 on 3rd Ocober 2023. Access credentials will be sent to all registered delegates a few days beforehand.
The WMS2023 Congress Programme can be viewed HERE. More information about the invited speakers will be available soon.
The Pre-Congress Teaching Course programme is available HERE . More information about the course faculty will be available soon. Please note that the sessions involving live patients will not be live streamed for virtual delegates nor available on demand through the virtual platform.
We realise that not everyone is in the same time zone, but we have tried to make the congress content as flexible and available as possible to everyone. So even if you are attending as an in-person delegate you will still have full access as a virtual delegate as well.
All sessions and lectures will be available on-demand in the Virtual Congress platform between 4 and 24 hours after the live stream. Just head to the programme menu in the virtual platform which is where you will find it all. You can still engage with presenters and exhibitors via the chat functions outside of the ADT congress hours, they will just pick the message in their own time zone and respond. Just remember to check back later for their response.
The vast majority of the scientific content and exhibition information will be available on demand for a period of 3 months after the meeting ends (8th January 2024) for registered participants only, unless speakers/presenters/exhibitors have requested their content/recording be removed 2 weeks post-congress. Most of the course and congress content will be available via the WMS website https://www.worldmusclesociety.org/ for WMS members to access at a future date.
The only congress sessions that will not be available in live streaming format will be the poster session presentations and social events. Virtual delegates will be able to view e-posters via the platform and engage with the presenter via chat.
Please note that only the course sessions on Monday will be live streamed for virtual delegates. This is because Tuesday's sessions will involve live patients so will not be live streamed for virtual delegates nor available on demand through the virtual platform.
The vast majority of the scientific content and exhibition information will be available on demand via the Virtual Platform and App for a period of 3 months after the meeting ends (8th January 2024) for registered participants only, unless speakers/presenters/exhibitors have requested their content/recording be removed 2 weeks post-congress. Please refer to your Joining Instructions email for your login details. Most of the course and congress content will be available via the WMS website https://www.worldmusclesociety.org/ for WMS members to access at a future date.
All sessions and lectures will be available on-demand in the Congress platform between 4 and 24 hours after the live stream and will remain available for at least 2 weeks (if speakers/presenters/sponsors have requested removal after this time) or for 3 months if speakers/presenters/sponsor have provided full consent (8th January 2024).
The Late Breaking News presentation title and author information will be added to the programme in mid-September and the abstract will be available in the app/platform/journal at the beginning of the congress.
Please see the Press & Embargo Policy information here.
The Pre-Congress Teaching Course will be for registered in-person attendees at the course venue and streamed on the virtual congress platform. You can find out more about the course faculty and see the course programme HERE. The course content will be available on-demand via the virtual congress platform until the end of October and after this via the WMS website for WMS members to access.
On arrival at the course, the venue staff will direct you to the Pre-Congress Teaching Course.
You will have the opportunity to interact with fellow attendees in-person at the venue and also on the virtual congress platform and app, through the one to one chat functions, Q&A and Polling features. During the live streaming, you will be able to send in your questions in real time via the app. These will be moderated and answered by presenters during the Q&A sessions.
Four poster sessions are scheduled for the congress week but the posters will be available to view at anytime in the poster rooms, e-poster screens and also on the congress app and virtual platform. You will have the opportunity to send your question to the authors via the app/platform at any time during this period. Please consult the Programme for more details.
E-Posters will be available to view on the platform and app from the congress opening on 3rd October 2023. The poster presenters will have uploaded their E-poster and an optional short video/audio file to accompany their presentation. Poster presenters attending in person will be available during the official poster sessions throughout the week, but messages to the presenter and other delegates can be sent anytime during the congress week.
All the content which the presenters and speakers have consented to will remain on the platform for 3 months post-congress for registered delegates to view on demand (8th January 2024).
A link to each abstract journal file will be added to the presentations on the platform. The abstracts as a whole will be available for WMS members and subscribers to the journal only, via the journal, after the congress.
WMS is all about networking! There are deliberately long lunch breaks to allow for informal discussions and networking during the congress.
However, WMS does actively discourage any congress sponsor or other organisation from organising any kind of meeting or event in parallel with the congress programme.
Any meeting or event which is organised before or after the congress must not be badged in anyway as a pre/post WMS event for example, nor any connection be made to attendees being able to attend as part of their WMS itinerary.
The Press Policy and further information is available here.
The embargo date is the presentation day, e.g. for a late breaking abstract this is the last day of the congress. Because this is a hybrid meeting the content may be available prior to the session being broadcasted at the scheduled time in the programme.
We take online registrations only and you can book your place here.
You can register a group online by accessing the relevant form on the Registration page. Groups can be registered by third parties and the Group Coordinator does not need to be a congress attendee.
In-Person Congress and Pre-Congress Teaching Course Registrations will be closing on 12th September at midnight BST
We strongly encourage all those interested in attending the congress and course to register in plenty of time ahead of the event because we expect numbers to be high. If you wish to attend virtually, please register in plenty of time before the congress, to ensure that virtual platform access credentials are sent and received in sufficient time and that you have the opportunity to familiarise yourself with the platform and facilities available.
Registrations will remain open for virtual tickets during the virtual meeting. However, if registering in the 48h ahead of the meeting or during the meeting, please expect a minimum 12-hour delay in receiving your access credentials. This means you might miss some of the live-streamed sessions.
You can book your to attend the course attendance during your Congress registration as well as separately. Only delegates who have pre-booked the course will be given access to this material during the Congress week.
Please head over to the Registration page for a full breakdown of fees.
No, we ask all those interested in attending the in-person meeting, live streams and on-demand content to register online ahead of the meeting. Only registered participants will receive the necessary access credentials for the venue and virtual congress platform.
Transfers between attendance types (in-person & virtual) should your situation change nearer the time, will be accepted until 1st September 2023 and must be requested in writing to registration@worldmusclesociety.org. Please read the full Terms & Conditions.
The presenting author must be registered for the congress in order to be able to submit an abstract. Only the presenting author can be the submitter of an abstract. An abstract submitted by someone who is not the presenter will be refused. For the full list of Guidelines, please visit the Abstracts page.
If your submitted abstract has been selected for an oral/poster presentation you are not entitled to complimentary registration.
We are working with the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to obtain accreditation for the teaching course and the main congress. More information is available here.
We are working with the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to obtain accreditation for the teaching course and the main congress. If approved, each medical specialist should claim only those credits that she/he actually spent in the educational activity. More information will be published on the website in due course.
Certificates of attendance will be available after completing the online post congress evaluation. If a personalised CME points certificate is required, this will be provided on request.
We are very much looking forward to welcoming our delegates in-person this year. If however the situation worsens and we are not able to go ahead with the meeting as planned we will have our virtual platform in place anyway. All delegates have access to the virtual platform. Please see our Terms and Conditions and article for more information.
Under UK VAT law, when determining if UK VAT should be charged on our admission fees for live online events such as the congress we have to consider the VAT place of supply rules.
The place of supply rules determine where a supply takes place for VAT purposes and therefore if UK VAT should be charged. There are general rules for supplies to business and non-business consumers as well as a number of exceptions to the general rule. The supply of admission to a live online even like our congress falls under the general rule and means the following:
1. If you are a business customer the place of supply is where you belong and if this is outside of the UK, no UK VAT will be charged.
2. If you are a non-business customer the place of supply is where we belong (the UK) and UK VAT will be charged at the applicable rate.
Our understanding is that you are a non-business delegate and therefore we have charged UK VAT. However, should this be incorrect we would be happy to review further. We would need you to provide us with conformation that you are in business and this would need to be evidenced by way of providing us with your VAT registration number. Please contact registration@worldmusclesociety.org to provide this information if applicable.
Yes please. All attendees must wear their name badge for all congress sessions including social events. This is so that we know you are part of the event, but your name badge also contains important information for the organisers such as dietary requirements, membership status and social events booked.
No, no tickets will be available onsite for the congress or course at the congress venue. Please do not travel or book accommodation if you do not have a confirmed in-person registration ticket in place.
The registration desk will be open as follows (local time):
Tuesday: 15:30 – 19:00
Wednesday: 06:30 – 20:00
Thursday: 07:00 – 15:00
Friday: 06:45 – 17:00
Saturday: 08:30 – 14:00
If you have registered for the Pre-Congress Teaching Course then morning and afternoon refreshment breaks on both days and lunch on Monday are included in your ticket. If you have registered for the course dinner on Monday then that is also included.
For the Congress, morning (on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday) and afternoon (on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) refreshment breaks and lunch (on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday) are included in your ticket. If you have registered separately for the Networking Reception, Group Activity Reception and Networking Dinner then food is included in those tickets.
To attend the meeting virtually, you need a good internet connection, your computer/laptop and a headset/headphones as well as a valid congress registration. If you have already registered for the congress, you will receive access credentials for the virtual platform a few days prior to the meeting.
Access credentials for the Virtual Congress platform, which will enable you to gain access to the live and on-demand content, visit the sponsor information and take part in live Q&A sessions, will be emailed to you a few days ahead of the congress.
These access credentials are different from the profile log-in account you set up to register for the event (you will not be required to use the registration log in details after you have submitted your registration and have received your confirmation email).
Please keep your virtual platform access credentials safe as you will need these details to enter the virtual meeting during the programme days and post-congress.
No, the slides from the session presentations cannot be downloaded.
We recommend using Chrome for the best experience when viewing the webcast and live-streamed sessions. If you are using Safari, please enable the popup blocker: www.lifewire.com/manage-pop-up-blocker-in-safari-4136249
During the congress week there will be live Technical Support available via the Virtual Platform and our team will be available onsite to assist you as well.
If you have any other questions, please contact the organisers or visit us at the registration desk. A member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible.
There are lots of ways to connect and engage with WMS 2022 attendees. Please see https://www.wms2023.com/page/social-media-guide for more information.
The Congress App will be made available to all delegates nearer the congress. You will be able to view the programme schedule, digital posters and audio/video files, sponsor information, participate in session Q&A and polling and connect with other delegates.
Accommodation is not included in your registration fee for the congress. HelmsBriscoe has been appointed as the official booking agent for the WMS 2023 Congress in Charleston and will be happy to assist you with your bedroom reservation or other related arrangements.
Please see: https://www.wms2023.com/page/accommodation for more information
Please see our general information page: https://www.wms2023.com/page/information
Every year the WMS awards fellowships, funded by an annual royalty from Neuromuscular Disorders by Elsevier. For the WMS 2023 Congress WMS will support up to 100 fellowships awarded to help in-person congress attendees who submit an abstract with their travel and accommodation costs.
The Programme Committee selects the recipients based on the quality of the abstracts submitted and the analysis of a brief bio provided during the registration process (including relevant special interest and expertise, details of current position and the importance of the work to be presented).
The World Muscle Society is expanding our existing fellowship opportunity to support equitable access to in-person attendance at the annual Congress. We encourage WMS members to apply if costs associated with travel to the Congress impact their ability to attend and benefit from in-person Congress attendance.
Please see https://www.wms2023.com/page/fellowships-and-prizes for more information
We the organisers and the congress venue are committed to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all our guests.
Please see the congress venue website for further information which includes information about accessible parking, restrooms and entrances. There is also a virtual tour of the venue if that would be useful. However, do contact us directly should you have a specific query or request. We will do everything we can to help you.
Absolutely. We are working closely with the catering teams to provide a healthy, balanced meal for all delegates. Our Congress Manager Clare is a gluten and dairy free pescatarian so she knows how frustrating it is when there isn't a proper meal provided at events. If you have any queries, please contact Semone our Registration Manager or Clare directly.
Find out if you need a Visa for the USA. Please make sure that you ask for a visa permit in plenty of time. If you need an invitation letter, please contact the Registration Manager if you didn't request one during the registration process.
If you need an invitation letter, please contact the Registration Manager if you didn't request one during the registration process..
