The organising committee of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS) wish to extend their heartfelt thanks to Abbey Conferences for their exceptional support across our 2023 and 2025 conferences, and request this letter serves as recommendation of their services.
 
ESTSS 2023 was held in Belfast 14-17 June 2023, bringing together academics, researchers, healthcare practitioners and professionals from across the globe for a four-day conference showcasing the latest in psychotraumatology research and practice. Some 600 delegates and exhibitors attended over 300 presentations across keynote sessions, workshops, and symposia.
 
ESTSS 2025 took place in Tbilisi, Georgia 13-15 June 2025, with 493 delegates from 45 countries exploring "Exploring New Approaches for Healing and Recovery in Times of Global Uncertainty and Extreme Stress." This conference faced unprecedented challenges due to Georgia's political situation, yet Abbey's unwavering support enabled us to proceed with confidence.
 
The Abbey team have been central to the success of both events. From the outset they understood our requirements, and not only delivered seamless events, but enhanced our conferences with their expertise, skill, and imagination. The team handled entire processes from conception to completion with care, sensitivity, and great insight.
 
The Belfast conference was postponed from 2021 due to the pandemic, marking our first international, in-person event since 2019. For Tbilisi, we faced different challenges when political tensions escalated and local committee members experienced personal difficulties. Throughout both challenging periods, the Abbey team demonstrated exceptional professionalism, empathy, flexibility and unwavering support. Their commitment went far beyond contractual obligations - they became true advocates for our community.
 
Working with Abbey, often across time zones and countries during planning stages, has consistently been a pleasure. Their transparent communication, management expertise, and genuine care for our volunteer committees sets them apart from typical service providers. They understand the unique pressures facing academic associations and busy professionals who volunteer their time.
 
In challenging times their support allowed us to focus on our community while knowing logistics were in expert hands.
 
We highly recommend Abbey Conferences

We are delighted to write this letter of recommendation for Abbey Conferences. The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland has worked with the Abbey team since 2022 to deliver our annual summer conferences.

Abbey has managed both our standalone annual meeting and joint conferences involving multiple partner organisations. Collaborative events can be challenging, but Abbey navigated this with skill and patience, ensuring seamless coordination between different societies whilst maintaining the distinct identity and needs of each organisation.

As a society, we move our conference to different locations across the UK each year and our conferences are complex (with multiple parallel sessions and many invited speakers). One of Abbey's greatest strengths has been their expertise in venue finding and their flexibility in working with us. They have identified venues that not only meet our practical requirements but also enhance the delegate experience, understanding that location plays a vital role in the success of our meetings. They partner excellently with regional Convention Bureaux and local suppliers, ensuring we get all the support available for our events and bring a local feel to each year. Their management of the actual conferences has, hitherto, been excellent.

The confidence and trust we have in Abbey is reflected in our decision to contract with them for the next three years of conferences. This long-term commitment speaks to the quality of their work and the strength of our relationship.

Abbey provides us with straight-talking, honest advice, even when it means having difficult conversations. This transparency has been essential in helping us make informed decisions and deliver the best possible events for our members.

We have no hesitation in highly recommending Abbey Conferences to any organisation seeking a professional conference organiser to deliver excellent events.

The team at Abbey Conferencing have supported a number of our events over the years. We really enjoy working with them on a wide and varied range of projects that span, virtual, hybrid and in-person events. They are a safe pair of hands and have a wealth of knowledge and experience in supporting and running complex conferences and events. They are understanding and respectful of our particular requirements all the while cognisant of our core values and objectives to deliver the highest standard and delegate experience.

The European Society of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology (ESPO) is a society for Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeons who specialise in the care of children. Our members and Congress delegates are mainly from Europe, but we have a global reach and maintain close links with other similar societies across the world. Our activities are largely educational, with a focus on organising a biennial ESPO Congress, contributing to other Congresses and arranging interim online and face-to-face teaching events.

Abbey Conference and Events became the Secretariat and Professional Conference Organiser for ESPO in 2015, after they organised and ran a very successful Congress for the society in Dublin in 2014.

Since then, they have provided comprehensive administrative support for the society, and especially the Executive Board. They have organised ESPO Congresses for up to 1,500 delegates in 2016 (Lisbon), 2018 (Stockholm), 2021 (Virtual) and 2023 (Liverpool). Arrangements for 2025 (Stuttgart) are under way, and 2027 (Prague) is in the planning stages.

Abbey’s work for us has included maintaining a membership database and various spreadsheets. They produce a regular society newsletter, support our Board with IT arrangements, room bookings and catering, and with the production of timely Minutes and action points from Board meetings. They support us in our liaison with our sister societies across the world. They have been invaluable in helping us manage our finances, keeping regular accounts with frequent updates to the Board. They have helped us with a recent website upgrade (www.espo.eu.com) and they continue to manage and maintain the website.

They also support and advise us in our dealings with industry partners, such as pharmaceutical companies and medical device/instrument makers who provide sponsorship to support our educational activities.

Abbey’s involvement has transformed the management of our society and enabled it to grow considerably. We have an excellent working relationship with them, at all times finding them courteous, timely, efficient, responsive and professional.
We were recently very happy to renew our contract with Abbey, and can heartily recommend them as a highly efficient Secretariat and Professional Conference Organiser.

The International Association for Paratuberculosis holds a Colloquium every two years. When we decided to make a bid for the 2020 Colloquium, we chose Abbey Conferences as our PCO. They gave us a lot of help in preparing the bid and the staff came with us to the 2016 Colloquium in Nantes, where we made the bid presentation together, and were successful in being awarded the 2020 Colloquium to be held in Dublin Castle in June 2020.

Abbey designed a very professional website for the Colloquium and the database for submitting and assessing abstracts was excellent. We had the programme completed and ready to publish in March 2020 when Covid struck and we had to postpone the conference not once but twice. Abbey presented a very smooth looking virtual conference platform demonstration but we decided, along with the Officers of the International Association, that we would wait for an opportunity to hold a live conference. The number of people working in research in this area is quite small and we felt that as they had not met in person for almost four years, a live networking opportunity was necessary.

Because of the postponement, abstracts needed to be resubmitted and this went very well. Most of the researchers that submitted abstracts in 2020 did so again in 2022 but there were some institutions that still had not approved foreign travel. There was a total of 213 delegates from 28 different countries.

At all our planning meetings the team was always very well prepared and helpful and was readily available if anything came up between meetings. Because of the double postponement this involved a lot of extra work, but the end result was a most enjoyable and rewarding conference held in Dublin Castle. She was also able to suggest a very good venue for the Welcome Reception at EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum and the Social afternoon at the Orchard Centre, Tinahely. The delegates thoroughly enjoyed the conference and the team from Abbey was most willing to help out with any queries any of the attendees might have had. I would have no hesitation in highly recommending Abbey Conference to anyone considering organising a conference in Dublin.

The International Foundation for Integrated Care has partnered with Abbey Conferences since 2016 when we organised our 17th Annual Conference in Dublin, Ireland. The event was such as success and our experiencing of working with all the Abbey team led us to the decision to employ Abbey across all our future European conferences. We have most recently worked with the team to move our Croatia conference to a virtual event.
Abbey ensured that absolutely every scenario was considered and prepared for. We felt very secure in their hands and the event was commended by our network around the world and held as an example to others. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Abbey into the future.

This letter of recommendation is written with gratitude for the service provided by Abbey Conference and Events in the organising of the Seventh International Conference on Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis 2022) which was held in NUI Galway in June 2022. The conference was held in person having been delayed by two years due to the pandemic.

The conference gathered together scientists, policy makers, veterinarians and industry stakeholders from around the world with the aim of identifying constraints and providing practical solutions for the control and eradication of M. bovis. Over four hundred delegates from 29 counties attended the four-day conference which comprised of 17 plenary talks, more than 50 stream talks, panel discussions, poster sessions along with a welcome reception and a gala dinner.

Abbey Conference and Events was involved in the planning process from the very beginning and advised the Organising Committee on all aspects of the conference. This included the viewing of potential venues, the eventual selection of NUI Galway as the conference location, the promotion of the conference, the securing of event funding and sponsors, timetabling, supplier negotiations, the abstract submission process, delegate and speaker registration, accommodation, advising and arranging of the various social events, the preparation of the conference handbook, and budgeting. No request by the Organising Committee was too big, or too small. Throughout the process, Abbey’s professionalism and expertise shone through.

Abbey was instrumental in ensuring that the conference ran smoothly and on budget despite the difficulties caused by the two-year postponement. The budget was regularly updated to reflect registration numbers and supplier costs. Given their industry experience and expertise, Abbey was able to secure cost effective deals with the conference venue, caterers, hotels, and other service providers on behalf of the Organising Committee. This allowed the Organising Committee to hold a high-quality conference within budget. The fee charged by Abbey for services provided proved highly cost effective.

On behalf of the Organising Committee, I would like to thank the Abbey team and wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone intending to host a conference or event in the future.

As chair of the organizing committee of the 7th International Conference on Food Digestion (ICFD2022), I am very happy to recommend Abbey Conference & Events as a Professional Conference Organiser (PCO). Our conference was held from 3-5 th May 2022 in Cork, Ireland with 250 delegates in attendance.

This conference was postponed in 2021 due to Covid19 pandemic but was later one of the first ‘in-person’ conferences held in Cork when the pandemic restrictions were lifted. As such we were delighted to welcome over 200 delegates from overseas. Abbey was there to guide us through the process from start to finish delivering a very successful within budget conference. Throughout the process, we found Abbey to be experienced, professional, knowledgeable and responsive to our needs to allow us to make informed decisions along the way. An example of this is the many open and frank discussions on the postponement and the pros and cons of whether or not to have an ‘in person’ or hybrid conference.

Abbey set up a conference website for registration and abstract submission. The website was regularly updated and one of the many helpful Abbey suggestions was to record a video to update delegates on any & all pandemic restrictions. In addition, Abbey set up the conference App, which was embraced by all delegates, in this era of reduce waste. This App not only contained the conference program, but also abstracts of speakers and a chat/network function. Abbey trained the organising committee and helpers in the use of the App so there was plenty of people to provide ‘on the spot’ assistance to delegates.

For the 18 months lead up to the conference, Abbey organised regular efficient meetings with the organising committee, provided minutes of those meetings and followed up all actions. As food was a central theme of the conference and we wished to showcase the best of Irish food, they accompanied us on all our site visits not only to help us in supplier and menu decisions but also to deliver the conference on budget. Indeed Abbey kept the organising committee informed on budgetary matters at all stages of the process.

During the conference, Abbey staff manned the registration desk all of the time. Their staff were friendly, courteous and pleasant but also knowledgeable solution providers to the varied and numerous queries from delegates. Abbey operated a WhatsApp group so conference organisers and helpers could be contacted at all times during the conference to ensure quick responses. I was very impressed with the clarity of communication from Abbey and their willingness to be flexible. I have no hesitation in recommending Abbey Conference & Events as a PCO.

In June 2019 WESC - the Wind Energy Science Conference - was successfully hosted in University College Cork, Ireland on behalf of the European Academy of Wind Energy. Abbey played a major role in the success of this event through the precise execution of a meticulous plan which we developed as a collaborative effort in the months leading up to the event. The knowledge and professionalism of all Abbey staff was invaluable throughout this process.

The Abbey Group showed great professionalism and flexibility which facilitated the effective delivery of a conference with c. 800 delegates attending 700 talks across 140 sessions over 4 days. The social program was developed and delivered with a similar level of diligence and resulted in some very memorable evenings which showcased some of the best food, music and culture that Cork has to offer.

The Abbey staff were fantastic ambassadors for the event during the conference itself. Their calm, cool, friendly and professional manner ensured that all delegate queries were resolved without issue.  The team of Abbey took ownership of the project and was exceptionally focused on the goal of delivering a successful event which transpired to be the largest ever scientific conference held in Cork.

I would not hesitate in working again with Abbey and recommending them to any other event organisers.