8th annual meeting and symposium of HEPA Europe

Getting to the grassroots: using the “green” environment to promote physical activity

The 2012 meeting was kindly hosted by the Physical Activity & Nutrition Networks for Wales, Public Health Wales in Cardiff on 26-27 September 2012. It included a symposium on experiences and best practice on how to promote the use of natural environments in urban and rural environments to promote physical activity across all age groups which was attended by 174 participants. The symposium featured welcome addresses by the Chief Medical Officer for Wales and the Chief Executive of Public Health Wales as well as invited key note lectures, 43 oral presentations across two sets of seven parallel sessions and more than 40 posters.

The annual meeting of HEPA Europe featured parallel sessions of five of its working groups on 26 September and the plenary annual meeting of the network on 27 September. It was attended by 49 participants from 18 European Member States.

The event also included a mayoral reception, a conference dinner, social events and activity sessions. The meeting was supported by the European Union in the framework of the Health Programme 2008-2013.