Since its creation in 1989, the Pacific Symposium, produced by Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, has been an annual opportunity for further education and rich interactions with experts in traditional Chinese medicine. Each year, Pacific Symposium provides those in the field of Oriental medicine to meet one another and explore healing in a beautiful setting, the Catamaran Resort Hotel in Pacific Beach, California. Acupuncturists, massage practitioners, chiropractors, nurses, medical doctors, and students all converge at this conference to exchange professional insights.

The Pacific Symposium is a world-class event, featuring the most successful practitioners in the field, and as it celebrates its 20th anniversary this November, the line-up of speakers is phenomenal. This year's line-up includes experts such as Giovanni Maciocia, Ted Kaptchuk, Jeffrey Yuen, Bob Flaws, Kiiko Matsumoto, Paul Unschuld, and Alex Tiberi. There will also be 73 exhibitors presenting their finest products to enhance the practice of traditional Chinese medicine.

The idea behind the creation of the Pacific Symposium developed when two of PCOM's founders Ana de Vidia and Joe Lazarro attended Ted Kaptchuck's lecture about his book, The Web That Has No Weaver. The workshop left a lasting impression upon both of the founders, and therefore invited Kaptchuck to speak in San Diego. What was to be a simple speaking engagement involving one speaker quickly grew into a Oriental medicine conference for practitioners in the field, as other renowned speakers were encouraged to join Kaptchuck for this special opportunity.

This event blossomed into 20 speakers that presented their topics at the Kona Kai hotel on Shelter Island to become the first Symposium in 1989. Over the next few years, the Pacific Symposium was held at Kona Kai hotel and the Pacific Beach Hilton. In the early 1990's, the Symposium was held on both the West and East coast, presenting the best speakers in the industry in San Diego, Boston, and New York. Today, the Pacific Symposium has become a tradition in San Diego held each year at the Pacific Beach Catamaran Hotel in San Diego.

The quality of speakers is one of the many benefits of the Symposium, which also offers the opportunity of continuing education courses to current practitioners. Each speaker's presentation is worth a specific number of continuing education units (CEUs), which are necessary to maintain one's license. Attendees can earn up to a maximum of 57 CEUs while selecting from a wide variety of speaker topics.

In more recent years, Pacific College also developed the popular Restoration Track. The Restoration Track is a hands-on, relaxing series of workshops that provides an indepth exploration of bodywork and massage. Also, featured in this track is the Egoscue method, which will correct the body's posture and balance through exercises and a variety of stretching routines. In addition to the restoration track, a new series of Advanced Acupuncture Techniques Workshops was implemented and is currently being offered to provide advanced needling, palpatory diagnosis, pulse analysis, and pain management methods. Both the Restoration Track and Advanced Acupuncture tracts provide two alternatives to the general session lectures.

Each Symposium has had a keynote speaker headline the event. Symposium has offered a myriad of experts as keynote speakers over the years, including Giovanni Maciocia, Paul Unschuld, Felice Dunas, and former California Governor Jerry Brown. Coming fulln circle to celebrate its 20 years of success, this year's Symposium will feature Ted Kaptchuck. Kaptchuck has been involved with the Symposium since 1989, when he served as its first keynote speaker and is always in high demand. He was the most anticipated speaker of the 14th annual Pacific Symposium. In his keynote address, Kaptchuk provided the 'pearls of wisdom' he is known for, exploring the idea that although TCM and biomedicine have become intertwined, mutual respect, patience and the ability to question beliefs are key components to the future development of medical care in America. Kaptchuk has written widely on the topic of traditional Chinese medicine, including over 100 scientific and medical articles.

The Pacific Symposium will be celebrating its 20th year of success this November 6-9th, 2008. It has become an international success, attracting well known speakers including Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, Kiiko Matsumoto, Giovanni Maciocia, Steven Halpern, Ravi Shankar, Dr. Shudo Denmei, and many others who have brought their knowledge to share with students, practitioners, faculty, and alumni through this four-day event each November. OM