We look forward to welcoming you to the 2025 VIC Branch Winter Welcome at the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. 

Like previous years, we were all geared up to host the Winter Welcome at the Melbourne Zoo—picturing crisp air, cozy vibes, limitless coffee, and maybe a chance encounter with an echidna that would have perfectly captured the awkwardness of the small talk encountered at the cocktail party with past peers whose names we've forgotten. 

But then CosiLivs swooped in like a Gartland 3 on a Sunday arvo, and suddenly the price of renting space near the giraffes resembled the cost of funding a small moon landing (or the current RACS training fee). After some intense budgeting (and a brief moment where someone suggested we just pretend the meeting never existed), we made the executive decision to relocate to the College of Surgeons.

Sure, it's not quite the animal kingdom we imagined, but nothing says "Winter Welcome" like networking under the watchful eye of the first college president Sir George Syme (I had to look that one up).

At least we'll be able to use some of the pennies saved on the bar-tab afterwards at the Imperial, drinking to forget how much parking near the CBD is going to cost you.

So get your abstracts in and sign up! We may be leaving the animals, but we'll be bringing the Wild with us (at least until 7pm).