Dear friends, colleagues, and strabismus enthusiasts,

it is my great pleasure to invite you all to attend the 45th Annual Congress of the European Strabismological Association in the beautiful city of Bergamo from 24th - 26th June 2027. After many excellent meetings in Firenze, Bologna, Venezia we return to Italy. I am sure our local organizer Andrea Piantanida and his team will do their best to welcome us to the next ESA meeting after the ISA Meeting 2026 in Buenos Aires.

We will have the traditional 2½ day ESA program including Symposia, Round Table Discussion, the Orthoptic Symposium and Early Morning Surgery Course, as well as the popular John Lee rapid fire Poster session and “A Case I have learnt from…”. Last and by no means least, we invite you all to submit abstracts of your own work. Presenting and discussing your research as talk or poster has always been a major contribution to the programme.

The ESA- Strabismus workshop “What you always wanted to ask about strabismus ..." was inaugurated in Venice in 2015. It will be held in Bergamo on Wednesday afternoon and invites young strabismologists and people who start to come to ESA meetings to join in a very interactive course discussion many aspects of strabismus.

The other event on the pre-conference day will be the EBO Subspeciality exam Strabismus and Paediatric Ophthalmology held together with the European Paediatric Ophthalmological Society (EPOS). Ophthalmologists who had at least a one-year training in this field can show their competence and will be handed the diploma of the European Board of Ophthalmology. More information can be found at www.ebo-online.org.

As ESA President I want to thank Andrea Piantanida and his team for all their work to organize an excellent meeting in Bergamo. And I very much look forward to meet you all at the congress in June 2027.

Oliver Ehrt

President, European Strabismological Association

Dear Colleagues and Friends, 

it is a great pleasure to welcome you in Italy in the city of Bergamo, and a great honour to host the 45th meeting of the European Strabismological Association. 

The scientific programme of the 45th ESA Congress will be of the highest standard as in the past meetings, and all aspects of childhood and adult strabismus will be covered by highly experienced colleagues and experts from around the world.

Bergamo is dived in two parts: the Upper Town, famous for being a UNESCO world heritage site with all its ancient monuments and the dynamic and modern Lower Town, with elegant cafés, tree lined avenues and the famous gallery Accademia Carrara. Bergamo offers many typical restaurants and places where you can taste the local cuisine rich in tasty dishes and cheeses from the nearby mountain valleys and the famous dessert “Polenta e osei”. Last but not least the town has a beautiful ancient Opera Theatre dedicated to the famous composer Gaetano Donizzetti born in Bergamo in 1797

The congress will take place in the Congress Center Giovanni XXIII, placed in a completely renovated early 20th-century building. The Congress Center is located in the lower city close to the railway station and all the services, and only 10 minutes by car from the airport. Around this area there are many hotels with a wide range of budget. 

Arrivederci a Bergamo!

Andrea C. Piantanida M.D.

Secretary AIS Italian Association of Strabismus and Councillor ESA European Strabismological Association