Scheduled to be held in September 2014, 900 international scientists are expected to travel to San Sebastian to attend the European congress.
In September 2014, San Sebastian's Kursaal will be hosting the 28th Symposium on Fusion Technology (SOFT), an international conference promoted by CIEMAT (Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology), under the aegis of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, which is expected to attract over 900 scientists and researchers.
The bid has been backed by Kursaal and the San Sebastian Convention Bureau, both of which have put a lot of hard work into it. Furthermore, San Sebastian competed with major cities, such as Budapest and Barcelona, the latter occupying second place in the world ranking of international meeting destinations.
The success of the SOFT congress bid comes close on the heels of that of the IPAC (International Particle Accelerator Conference), due to be held this coming September, which will attract 1,200 scientists from all over the world. Both events consolidate San Sebastian's position among the world's most popular destinations for organizing meetings and events of a scientific or technological nature, which is complemented by medical conferences, thus promoting a new knowledge economy in the region.
Lasting five days, the biannual SOFT conference has been previously held in Porto (2010) and Rostock (2008), while Liege (Belgium) will be hosting the 2012 edition. The goal of SOFT is to exchange information on the design of fusion experiments and technology. A keystone of the international fusion program is the ITER project, which when concluded in 2019 will constitute an important step towards the development of a new energy source based on fusion reactors.
Kursaal and the San Sebastian Convention Bureau have made a clear commitment to increase San Sebastian's conference activity, and the record figures registered in 2010, a full agenda in 2011 and a portfolio of promising bids for the future go all the way to corroborate their excellent work.
