EACD 2024 Impact Task Force

EACD 2024 wants to be more than just your standard scientific congress. Don’t worry, we will still have a state-of-the-art programme, with inspiring keynote lectures, lots of parallel sessions and time for networking during the coffee breaks. However, the primary goal of the EACD 2024 Annual Meeting is actually to act as a leverage, to (figuratively) write a new symphony with all stakeholders involved, and create a significant impact together towards a better life for people with childhood-onset disabilities from the local region, and for the EACD community in Belgium and Europe.

To realize this ambitious objective, we have introduced a pioneering initiative for the EACD Bruges 2024 Meeting. For the first time in its history, a separate unit, the EACD 2024 Impact Task Force, has been established alongside the traditional Local Organising Committee and Scientific Congress Committee, marking a significant milestone in EACD’s evolution

Why, How, What?

Why create an impact task force? As a researcher, clinician, industrial partner, or policy maker, we want our work to make a difference. We want to make a positive long-term impact, in the domain you work in, but also for the people you are working with and their community.

How to create impact as EACD organisation? It is important to consider how can we make our EACD Annual Meeting more than just a scientific congress that comes to a European city and leaves again. That is, international conferences are an important means of stimulating debate, disseminating knowledge, and developing informal networks. But does our Annual Meeting really make a difference for people with childhood-onset disabilities and their families from the region?

This asks us to think about what legacy we want to create at a local level for the hosting country of our event. In this respect, we have seen in the past that EACD Annual Meetings have played a big role in bringing people and networks together at National level, leading to stronger and better collaborations in the subsequent years. This is great of course, but how do we measure this impact on the local community? And how can we ensure these changes from activities linked to our Annual Meeting live on in a sustainable way?

The purpose of this EACD Impact Task Force is to set a pathway to generate and measure broader societal impact around the EACD2024 congress in a systematic and sustainable way. Based on the Theory of Change, and in close collaboration with experts from VisitFlanders and Meet4Impact International, the EACD 2024 Impact Task Force group is working on defining, managing, measuring and communicating the societal impacts of the planned activities in a stepwise approach:

Defining the intentions to generate impact for the benefit of people with childhood-onset disabilities through the EACD Annual Meeting;
Building and engaging a wide group of stakeholders around this vision;
Use the momentum of the Annual Meeting to plan legacy project activities around the congress;
Assess the value created by the event and report on the impact generated.

Impact intentions

Several impact intentions have been defined on the desired change linked to the topics Accessibility, Research, and Technology, and will be communicated in the upcoming months.

Impact Task Force Team

Elegast Monbaliu, EACD, KU Leuven – Brugge
Bernard Dan, EACD, ULB, KU Leuven
Patricia Van de Walle, UAntwerpen, HEDER, CP Voetbal Vlaanderen
Marian Moens, MFC HEDER, Fabiola Kinderziekenhuis, KOMPAS groep
Carl Rijsbrack, Cinioc, EDCPN network, EACD Families & Users’ Forum
Dries Cautreels, UGent, Vakgroep sociaal werk en sociale pedagogiek
Niek De Taeye, Mira Louise Fonds, Chair EACD Families & Users’ Forum
Roland Pouillie, Vlaamse Sociale Bescherming, Hulpmiddelenbeleid
Ann Govaere, UGent, KU Leuven, ABBV
Alana Boone, Stad Brugge, Cel lokaal sociaal beleid
Marco Konings, EACD back office coordinator / KU Leuven – Brugge
Gemmeke de Jongh, Visit Flanders Convention Bureau
Milo Vergucht, Visit Flanders Convention Bureau

International Members

Christiana Hennemann, RehaKIND, journalist
Jule Heintorf, Ottobock, lived experience expert
Bente Maimann, Advisor Elsass Foundation, lived experience expert
Sam Michiels, KU Leuven, Industrial Research Fund, lived experience expert