The WSACS—the Abdominal Compartment Society has chosen Banff for the 8th World Congress of the Abdominal Compartment Society (http://www. wcacs2017. org/). This meeting represents the “coming-out” party and rebirth of the society after its rebranding from the highly successful progenitor, the World Society of the Abdominal Compartment Syndrome (WSACS). At the risk of being considered immodest, it should be recorded that in little over a decade since its 2004 WSACS birth place in Noosa, Australia, the society has cooperated and endeavoured to promote research, foster education, and improve the survival of critically ill patients suffering from severe intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) and abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS). In addition to five previous international scientific conferences, the society has published a dedicated textbook [2], highly cited (over 1,000 times on Google Scholar) consensus statements concerning definitions [3], management [4] and classification of the open abdomen [5], along with standards for research concerning IAH/ACS [6]. The society has also produced complete scientific supplements published in