Launch Night

Sunday, May 23rd, 2027

Just arriving in Halifax or unable to attend the IBIA SIG & Section Spotlight (Pre-Congress) sessions?
Launch Night is the perfect way to begin your World Congress experience.

Included with your Congress registration, Launch Night offers an opportunity to connect with colleagues from around the world, explore emerging topics in brain injury research and care, and start building meaningful connections before the main scientific program begins.

Whether you’re attending your first World Congress or reconnecting with longtime colleagues, we encourage you to join us for an engaging afternoon of learning, conversation, and networking.

Please check back in Winter 2026 for specific session details.

Schedule

3:15 – 3:45pm AT
Official Opening of the 16th World Congress on Brain Injury & Land Acknowledgement

3:50 – 4:50pm AT
Launch Night Sessions

4:50 – 5:30pm AT
Bubbles & Networking Reception

Join us as we officially launch the Congress and celebrate the beginning of a week dedicated to advancing brain injury research, rehabilitation, and care worldwide.

Below are examples of sessions featured during Launch Night in 2025:

Neuroplasticity, Spasticity and Rehabilitation “What Is It and Where Might We Be Going”

Speakers: Cindy Ivanhoe, Jason Edwards

There is increasing awareness of the importance of treating spasticity, as more certifications and fellowships are developing. “Spasticity” is more than “a sensorimotor disorder characterized by a velocity dependent, increased resistance to stretch.” The definition is evolving. Spasticity is part of the Upper Motor Neuron (UMN) syndrome and can negatively impact neuroplasticity. In fact, it partially represents misdirected neuroplasticity. Spasticity frequently presents with other UMN findings such as weakness, dystonia, spread of hypertonicity and tremor. It can mask/limit potential and function and contribute to medical complications whether in the Disorders of Consciousness (DoC) population, or the ambulatory, employed brain injury population. It can require lifelong management and impact aging. This course will address philosophies surrounding treatment of spasticity and the UMN syndrome in the brain injury population and goal setting through patient presentations and discussion of interventions. More accepted treatment options such as botulinum neurotoxins, phenol and alcohol nerve block injections, intrathecal baclofen therapy, orthopedic considerations will be discussed. Newer interventions that may have a role in the treatment and management include cryoneurolysis, vibrating gloves, robotics, hyaluronidase, vagal nerve stimulation and spinal cord stimulation; interventions extrapolated from principles of treating other UMN syndrome disorders.

Repeated Traumatic Brain Injury in Sport: From Pathology to Pitchside to Public Health

Speakers: Daniel Daneshvar, William Stewart, Christine Bough

Background: Repeated traumatic brain injury (rTBI) can increase risk of neurodegenerative disease later in life, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. These sequelae have garnered significant public interest, leading to questions from patients, athletes, and their loved ones. Understanding the latest literature on the long-term effects of rTBI is essential to provide accurate and scientifically justified information without causing undue alarm. This session aims to highlight key advances in understanding neurodegenerative disease following rTBI through case reports from former professional athletes, offering an engaging and interactive experience for attendees.

Relevance and Impact: Scientific advances in neurodegenerative disease research have been rapid and international. Awareness of these new findings is crucial, given the mismatch between lay discourse and scientific information. Addressing this gap is essential as patients, their families, and friends turn to sports clinicians for expertise. Integrating these advances into practice is challenging but necessary to improve clinical practice and patient outcomes.

Conclusion: This session will equip attendees with comprehensive knowledge about the pathogenesis, clinical diagnosis, risk factors, and biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease following rTBI. Participants will leave better prepared to integrate recent scientific advances into their clinical practice and to communicate effectively with patients and their families about this critical topic.

Why So Sensitive? Neurosensitivity Spectrum Disorders (NSDs) After TBI

Speakers: Nathan Zasler, Jacqueline Theis, Sara Etheredge

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a significant public health issue, leading to a wide array of neurological and sensory disturbances that impair quality of life. Among these disturbances, post-TBI sensitivities to light, sound, smell, gustation, touch, temperature, motion, alcohol, pattern/color, and emotion are common yet often under-recognized and misunderstood. Attendees will garner an understanding of the etiology of such complaints and their differential diagnosis…including brain, cranial, cranial adnexal and/or cervical injury. Attendees will also acquire an enhanced understanding of the role of central sensitization, autonomic dysfunction, cervicocerebral connections, myofascial dysfunction, neuroendocrine, visuovestibular and upper cervical vertebral somatic dysfunction/instability in the etiology and promulgation of neurosensitivity spectrum disorders. Proposed mechanisms for the various neurosensitivity spectrum disorders will be reviewed, as well as their typical clinical manifestations, key assessment strategies and proposed treatment approaches. The importance of a multidisciplinary approach to address these complex symptoms will be emphasized.