Meetings are always a privilege to attend. You get to see your friends who share your passion for hair transplant surgery, share knowledge, learn new things and improve your own ideas. It's also a good time to meet new people in the field and hang out.

This one was no different. I had the honor of being from the hosting country - Portugal - and was delighted to serve and help everyone I could to feel as much as home as possible and guide them through some of the best things my country has to offer. (Mostly great food and wine. he he)

The meeting brought some really interesting subjects. Some new things and ideas were presented and some old concepts looked like they were on their way out. It's always amazing to see how much we're still advancing in the field of hair restoration and how much passion there is for it. It's something I'm very happy to be a part of.

The World FUE Institute is becoming, with each meeting, a more vibrant community, and this meeting we saw the number of attendees practically doubling, which is a good indicator of how much it is growing and how much new interest there is in it.

One of the highlights was when Dr. Lupanzula kindly gifted a ceremonial shirt, typical from his home country, Congo, to each of the doctors who had complimented him on his shirt at last year's meeting in Athens, Greece. I remember saying we should all wear our shirts at this year's cocktail reception, and so we did. We had a blast!

We have already set a time and place for the next meeting: Avignon, France in June 2018. Should be awesome.

From left to right: Dr. Emorane Lupanzula, Dr. Jerry Wong, Dr. Tony Ruston, Dr. José Lorenzo, myself, Dr. Koray Erdogan

Dr. Joop is always our selfie photography expert.