Throughout Europe there is a growing awareness of the needs of our most able individuals; in recent years increasing interest in this area of child development has generated new forms of practice in education, numerous research programmes and studies, a growth in the number of societies for parents of highly able children and, indeed, a growth in concern for highly able people of all ages.

The ECHA Committee asks ECHA members and related European talent support organizations to consider to organize an ECHA Conference in 2016 or later in biannual periods. Please find a more detailed text of our call HERE. To help your decision the ECHA Executive Committee worked out guidelines of ECHA conferences. Please find them HERE. We would like to receive your proposal before the 20th of April, 2013. For your proposal please fill up the Proposal Form downloadable from HERE and email it to l.hoogeveen (at) acsw.ru.nl by the 20th of April. If you have any questions ask Lianne Hoogeven in this email. By the end of April, the ECHA Executive Committee will decide where the next ECHA conference will take place and will notify all applicants.

Platon Youth Forum is an international summer camp for gifted young adolescents (age 15 to 20). The aim is to bring the idea of European citizenship into the focus of the participants. In several workshops they will working on crucial issues and problems of the societies in the European Union, e.g. racism, salaries of manager, cost-cutting measures, military service, copyright law, organic food, organ trade. The campus takes place in the lake district of Salzburg, Austria, July 28th  - August 3rd,  2013. For more information download this FILE, or visit the web-site: http://platon.vake.eu/join-us/. The application deadline is 30th June 2013.

Leslie Graves has been elected the next World Council President. The President serves as the Chief Executive of the World Council and is elected to a non-renewable four year term. Ms. Graves will take office as President in August at the conclusion of the 2013 World Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. ECHA wants to promote the cooperation with the World Council for the common goal: helping the gifted and talented with high-quality work.