This week marked our 41^st annual New York Cardiovascular Symposium managed incredibly well by Valentin Fuster, who will receive ACC’s coveted Teacher of the Year award at ACC.09. The NY Symposium had record attendance (2,000) and record international participation (61 percent). The program and the faculty are exceptional — but no doubt part of the attraction (for families of attendees) may be that the EURO-dollar exchange rates has transformed the Big Apple into the shopping equivalent of a European Wal-Mart. But these attendance numbers buck all the trends. People are still willing to travel for quality education.

This meeting offered President Weaver and me additional opportunities to me with international CV leaders, NY-based industry representatives and academic leaders. But the real opportunity was the excellence of the program content, as evidenced by the packed room through all of the sessions.