In 2021, the South Central Section of the AUA celebrated its 100th Annual Meeting at the Camelback Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona under the leadership of President Michael Cookson (Oklahoma). As we move into our next century for the 101st meeting at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, California, 2 key themes are clear: a fantastic scientific agenda and an epic venue.

Figure 1. The Crown Room at Hotel Del Coronado will host our plenary sessions.

Figure 2. a, The iconic Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, California. You will not stop taking pictures of this rotunda from so many different angles. b, Hotel Del Coronado’from the beach side. c, The hotel bar “Babcock and Story” is at the base of the rotunda and looks out at the Pacific. Many of the room names on the campus are important figures in the history of this hotel founded in 1888. Babcock and Story were the founding developers of the hotel.

Figure 3. The north part of the island has several parks, restaurants and a view of the San Diego skyline.

The scientific committee is led by our President-elect Chad LaGrange (Nebraska), and they have come up with a dynamic agenda full of themed blocks, state-of-the-art lectures, highly ranked abstracts and panel discussions. The committee consists of Dr. LaGrange, John Davis (Texas), Michael Cookson (Oklahoma), Ajay Nangia (Kansas), Fernando Kim (Colorado), Katie Murray (Missouri), Max Gallegos (New Mexico), Brian Flynn (Colorado), Allen Morey (Texas) and Christopher Deibert (Nebraska). The themed blocks are a nice balance of urologic oncology, functional urology, reconstruction, pediatrics, men’s health, benign prostatic hyperplasia and stones. Beyond subspecialty content, there will be several areas of broad interest, including AUA and American Board of Urology updates, coding/billing update with Mark Painter, a panel on burnout and a panel on diversity/equity/inclusion. I am looking forward to an interesting town hall session titled “Dreaded Consults.”

For abstract presentations, we will continue our pattern of breakout sessions, but will try to limit dividing up the agenda too much. High ranked abstracts will be part of the general session themes. Abstracts will be presented as podiums, posters or videos. We will continue last year’s concept of the resident/fellow award abstracts being pre-reviewed by an assigned mentor and presented along with the mentor’s feedback at the meeting. Drs. Randall Meacham (Colorado) and Michael Coburn (Texas) will co-host another academic urology forum. We have changed the meeting format to place the annual banquet on Friday night. The Saturday agenda will then feature many favorites such as a practice of urology session, resident quiz bowl and T. Leon Howard Imaging Session. For the latter, Dr. Moben Mirza (Kansas) will serve as our first elected host after a long and memorable era of leadership from Brant Trasher. We will have several guest speakers including Jim Porter from Seattle on surgical innovation, an AUA course on urolithiasis by Michael Lipkin and several guests from the nearby University of California San Diego.

In addition to a rigorous scientific agenda and opportunities for professional networking, the Hotel Del Coronado will offer an unforgettable venue, with its oceanside location, proximity to San Diego (airport <10 miles away) and state-of-the-art conference facilities. The main sessions will be in the original Victorian building of the resort in the iconic Crown Room, with its fully wood paneled roof shaped like a ship’s hull (Fig. 1). The exhibit hall will be in the Ocean’s Ballroom, which is under the famous red rotunda of the hotel (Fig. 2). You will find yourself taking countless pictures of this part of the hotel. Adjacent to the Victorian building is the Founders building, which has just been remodeled into a state-of-the-art conference facility and will host our breakout sessions, posters and industry programs.

Our social agenda will include a Welcome Reception in the Ocean’s Ballroom, a Theme Night beachside and our annual black-tie banquet. In your free time, the island is a perfect place for long walks through the immaculately landscaped neighborhoods, public parks, golf, tennis and bicycle rides. There is a nearby marina to catch boat tours of the bay. Our section meeting is ideal for spouses/significant others to attend, and those new to the section will easily find new friends in our hospitality suite. They will likely find their way to Orange Avenue’the main business road that connects to the north part of the island (Fig. 3).

On behalf of the leadership of the South Central Section of the AUA, I welcome all members and guests from other sections to join our 101st meeting.