The Road to ICN: Educational Workshops

In the lead-up to a major congress like ICN, it’s common to run a series of smaller educational workshops in different cities, each focused on a specific topic that will also come up during the main event.

These pre-congress workshops serve a few purposes. They give researchers and practitioners in the host region a chance to engage with congress themes without traveling internationally, they build anticipation for the main event, and they let organizers test which topics generate the most interest ahead of finalizing the full program.

Workshop topics for a nutrition-focused congress tend to track major themes in the field at the time — food safety, chronic disease prevention, the role of diet in specific health outcomes, or emerging areas like the gut microbiome. Sessions are usually organized in partnership with regional scientific societies or foundations with an interest in nutrition research.

For researchers based near a workshop location, these sessions are often one of the more accessible ways to engage with ICN’s broader scientific community without committing to the full congress.