Dear Colleague,

It is my pleasure to invite you to participate in a Socratic Workshop, entitled, which will be held in a local restaurant on the evening of Tuesday, May 16, beginning at 8 : 30 pm. Drs XX (UK) and YY (Japan) have kindly agreed to act as the ‘leaders’ of the workshop.

The Socratic Workshops are an attempt to break away from the traditional format, and to open new and better avenues of communication. They have been developed from many discussions with colleagues who unanimously felt that we need more time, and a relaxed, informal atmosphere to get to know each other, to ask questions and to exchange ideas. Since this is a new format, it is unlikely that everything will be perfect; however, I hope that your participation and cooperation with the workshop leaders will make it a success that can be built upon in future meetings.

The workshops have been scheduled to last about three hours. They will begin with an informal cocktail period, followed by a seated dinner (á la carte), and subsequent discussions. The idea of the workshops is to communicate, ask questions and engage in fruitful interactions. This precludes the use of slide presentations; the latter would make it too tempting to engage in lengthy monologues, which is exactly what we do not want. However, flip-charts (blackboard substitutes) will be available. The workshop leaders have received suggestions concerning the conduct of the workshops, and they will decide on details of the evening.