President's Invitation 
It is with great pleasure that the Group Analytic Society, London, invites you to the 15th European Symposium in Group Analysis, Cultures, Conflict and Creativity...
We are all trying to accommodate to a fast moving and constantly changing world with all its many possibilities, but also with all its dangers of alienation and conflicts. The many different forms of new media transforming the world into a globalised village and the mixing and clashes of cultures put new challenges to the individual, the family and to groups and organisations. S.H. Foulkes and others after him have given us some powerful instruments to help us understand what goes on in groups, to analyse and solve conflicts and to realise the creative possibilities inherent in all conflicts.
The Symposium will give you opportunities to explore the theme in theoretical and experimental ways through lectures, papers, panel presentations and workshops, and through participation in small, median and experiential groups.
The Symposium will further offer the possibility to consolidate and expand professional networks and friendships and to develop a common ground for future work across national and cultural boundaries.
Gerda Winther, President, Group Analytic Society (London)
Chairperson's Welcome
As Symposium Chairperson and on behalf of the Local Organising Committee I want to welcome you to the 2011 London Symposium in Group-Analysis. The GAS (London) is this symposium's organising body and our preparations are progressing well. We look forward to providing a rich and complex experience in London that will bring you professional rewards and personal satisfactions.
'When you grow tired of London you grow tired of life', said 18th century man-of-letters Dr Johnson. Founded by the Romans, London is steeped in the history of England, the UK, Europe and the world. It is also a very modern city with current-day Londoners originating from across the globe and contributing to its cosmopolitan nature. Its attractions include a vast assembly of museums, art galleries, theatres, cinemas, clubs, concert halls, architecture and a multitude of languages and cultures. It is also a city of huge contrasts in wealth and poverty.
We are very pleased with our new venue at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Originally part of the Royal Naval College at nearby Greenwich, Goldsmiths became a college of London University in 1904. It is a premier College in the UK with its arts, sociology and literature courses highly regarded internationally; it has housed art and group psychotherapy programmes over many years. Its Great Hall with its celebrated acoustics, will provide us with a superb space for both our Keynote Speakers and the Large Group. The Campus provides excellent academic facilities in old and new meeting rooms and a good refectory. There is first class university standard accommodation on site and a range of fine hotels in the locality. Goldsmiths is a few minutes walk from New Cross Gate Station giving rail access to London Bridge Underground, Central London, in only 7 minutes. With local associations to famous diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, close to historic ship-building areas on the River Thames and set in the multi-ethnic inner-city of Deptford, the area is a human microcosm of the twenty-first century. Goldsmiths College is a centre of educational excellence in this locality and their vision is consonant with the Theme of the Symposium.
We in the Local Organising Committee all look forward to welcoming you to London in 2011.
Kevin Power, Chairperson, 2011 European Symposium Committee of the GAS.