Dear friends of the International Surgical Group,
It is with honour and great pleasure to present to you the programme of the 68th ISG Meeting taking place from 7-10 September 2025 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
We are delighted to finally (third time’s the charm!) be able to welcome you to our country and hope that many of you will be coming over in September.
The meeting is now open for registration through via the meeting website here.
On this website, you will also find the meeting programme, general information on the venues and travel information into the Netherlands/Utrecht. Your hotel booking can also be made during your registration.
We are deliberately hosting you from Utrecht rather than crowded Amsterdam, so that you can experience the quieter, real life Dutch atmosphere from a less touristic environment. We are happy that Grand Hotel Karel V has sufficient availability to provide accommodation for all of us (guaranteed up till 2nd of June), as it is the perfect base for exploring Utrecht and for being in the centre, it is a surprisingly quiet hide away.
Utrecht is easy to reach by (international) trains and only a thirty-minute drive/train ride away from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
We have been working together with ACS Global on a programme, trying to meet the proven ISG formula of combining the scientific programme with the real taste of local culture and enough opportunity to meet and catch up as ISG friends.
For the scientific member programme, we will visit two totally different venues in Utrecht. On the Monday we will be at Princess Máxima Children’s Hospital for Oncology, a completely new and nationally centralised research hospital, where all children with cancer in the Netherlands are treated. From this largest pediatric cancer center in Europe, we will experience a unique setting that creates an exciting perspective on future pediatric surgical oncology next to our own presentations and discussing our own views on contemporary surgical developments.
On the Tuesday the scientific programme will take place in the historical setting of the Paushuize: The Dutch Pope house. For those who wonder, yes, a Dutchman was the pope in the Vatican back in 1522.
But there is more!
Utrecht is an interesting place from a historical perspective as it has been a religious centre since the eighth century with significant cultural importance until it was surpassed by Amsterdam during the 17th century. The period in Dutch history usually referred to as the Dutch Golden Age (which has rightly so become a controversial term in our times) in which the prosperity of the Dutch Republic caused a flourishing period of the arts, with painters like Rembrandt and Vermeer creating timeless masterpieces.
Hence bringing the partner programme to the Hague on Monday to visit the Mauritshuis which houses amongst others the Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt van Rijn, the Girl with the Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, the Bull by Paulus Potter and the Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius.
The rest of the programme will be in Utrecht itself with a trip to the close-by Zuylen Castle that has remained unchanged since mid-18th century on the Monday evening. Museums and old secrets and tales of the city centre of Utrecht will be visited with tour guides on the Tuesday.
We hope that this scientific and cultural experience will inspire you to come to the Netherlands!
If you want to extend your stay, you will probably want to visit other places as well, as the programme will cover quite a bit of Utrecht already. Apart from Amsterdam of course, Haarlem, Delft, Leiden are also nice places to visit. Or perhaps also the Dutch Wadden Sea Islands. We will shortly provide some additional information and suggestions on the website. Including links to the sites where you can pre-book your tickets for the main museums in Amsterdam (because if you plan on going there, you will have to do that well in advance to secure a time slot).
Please do not hesitate to contact ACS Global, myself or Diek with any questions you may have.
We look forward to welcoming you!
Also on behalf of Julie and Jan van Lanschot,
Kees and Diek van Laarhoven
