Feedback from the Faculty Course Leader, Dr Herman Edeling about the Seminar in Johannesburg on 13 May.

Dear Colleagues,

I wish to express my deep and sincere gratitude to each and every one who contributed to the success of the SAMLA-UCT-Function Venues event on Saturday 13 May 2017. Since Saturday we have received enthusiastic feedback and compliments from a great number of participants. I am still in awe of what happened.

In order to cover costs we needed 145 participants. We had to cut off registrations at 268!

The event was a conceptual and technological breakthrough, the first of its kind national seminar in 5 cities, linked by professional grade 5x2-way audio-visual streaming. For this we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Function Venues, Douglas Reed, Michael Jackson and UCT Law@work – for making our dream a reality, for making it affordable, and for the consistent attention to detail that was evident in the quality. As has been stated by many this method, which has now been implemented and tested, would be valuable to any organisation involved in national education and training programs.

More importantly, I am over the moon at the intellectual content of the day. In addition to the specifics of the topics that were covered, a number of core values shone through and established a moral high ground. Ethical conduct, mutual respect, lawfulness, the scientific method and logical reasoning were repeatedly affirmed and championed. I do not have words to express the debt we owe to Judge Claassen, Prof Becker, Prof Andrews, Ms Wasserfall, Dr Lerm, Adv Nelson, Mr Jordaan, Dr/Adv Van Den Bout, Mr Reynolds, Prof Tschaepe, Ms Coetzee, Dr Klatzow, Adv Dutton, Dr Enslin, Prof Lautenbach, Dr Bütow-Dûtoit, Ms Bubb and Prof Kellerman for their goodwill and selfless intellectual gifts.

On Saturday we invited comments, questions and recommendations for the course in 2018. We should pay attention, particularly to criticisms, and keep our minds open to learning from the bright young minds that are less jaded than our own. If we build on this experience we should achieve our goal of elevating the quality and stature of medico-legal practice in South Africa.

I salute you one and all!