To ensure the most beneficial outcome for all parties involved in medical congresses, through the development of common and consistent congress policies and through recognised partnerships with medical societies. IPCAA was formed in 1989, originally as the European Pharmaceutical Congress Advisory Association (EPCAA), an association of European research-based pharmaceutical companies. Their concerns were mainly two-fold: - that new and emerging European Community regulations over pharmaceutical promotion were causing confusion and inconsistency for sponsors of international medical congresses - and that sponsors' contracts for their participation in these congresses were becoming heavily weighted (from the point of view of cost and logistics) in favour of the organisers. Since 1989 there have been a number of structural changes. In 1993 in response to the simple fact that a European association was simply unable to represent the global spread of healthcare congress sponsors, EPCAA became the International Pharmaceutical Congress Advisory Association (IPCAA). Today IPCAA represents in excess of 22 healthcare companies from around the world with its Code of Conduct and Guidelines seen as the basis for interactions between medical societies, congress organisers and the Healthcare Industry.