Put hundreds of podiatrists in a conference centre and they won't all need to learn the same thing. 

One delegate might want to refresh an essential part of their everyday practice. Another might want to explore an area they know very little about. Someone else might be working at an advanced level and looking for a session that reflects the complexity of their practice. 

Until now, the conference programme has not made those distinctions particularly visible or clear. 

This year, it will. 

For Podiatry 2026, sessions have been tagged core, enrichment or advancing

The idea is to give you a better indication of what you can expect from a session before deciding whether to attend. 

But what do those three words mean? 

One thing they do not do is rank the sessions. Enrichment is not simply a step between core and advancing, and advancing does not mean ‘better than’. 

They're there to tell you what kind of learning you'll find when you walk through the door. 

Core 

Core sessions cover knowledge and skills relevant to registered podiatrists across the profession. 

Whatever your role, setting or specialism, these are subjects that form part of the foundations of podiatric practice. 

And core does not mean basic. 

A core session might refresh your existing knowledge, explore an area of practice that has changed or help you apply an essential skill more confidently. 

Sessions include POM-S in Practice, with the College's Medicines and Medical Devices Committee, and Rheumatology: Is there ‘rheum’ for more in your assessment?  with Christopher Joyce and colleagues from the College's Rheumatology Specialist Advisory Group. 

Enrichment 

Enrichment is about broadening rather than moving up a level. 

These sessions might introduce you to an area of podiatry you have not explored before, a career pathway you had not considered, new research, a policy question or simply another way of thinking about your professional practice. 

You do not need to be working towards a particular level of practice to attend. The point is to discover and experience something beyond what you already know. 

One example is Rachel Vernon's session, Forensics: Every step tells a story: Clinical vs forensic gait analysis. 

You might have no intention of becoming a forensic podiatrist. You might simply be curious about what happens when the gait analysis familiar from clinical practice is used to answer a very different set of questions. 

That's called enrichment. 

Advancing

Advancing sessions are designed principally for podiatrists working at, or developing towards, advanced levels of practice, including specialist and enhanced roles. 

They assume greater existing knowledge and give speakers room to explore more complex clinical reasoning, decision-making and practice. 

Sessions include Vascular: Beyond the Obvious Foot, the podiatric surgery sessions and Diabetes: The offloading ladder. 

But the word ‘advancing’ is not a sign on the door telling everyone else to stay out. 

Everyone attending conference is free to choose the sessions that interest them. 

You do not have to pick a lane 

An advanced practitioner might want to refresh something fundamental in a core session. 

Someone early in their career might be curious enough to sit in on an advancing discussion. 

And enrichment sessions are there for anyone who wants to venture beyond familiar territory. 

So do not think of core, enrichment and advancing as three tracks through conference. You do not need to choose one and stick to it. 

Think of the tags as information. 

They're there to help you look at the programme, understand what kind of learning each session offers and decide where you want to spend your time. 

Because the point is not to tell you which sessions you should attend. 

It's to give you a better idea of what you'll find when you get there. 

Links and references 

Podiatry 2026 programme