“...specialist/expert is a surgeon with mastery/expert level hernia surgery skills who actively TRAIN, EDUCATE and perform RESEARCH …” (Hernia 2018, 22: 1-165) I do not know if I am an expert, even if my “data” and experience should help me that way. Still, I believe that educating and/or training cannot be separated from research and sharing experiences such as in a so comprehensive and unique meeting organised here in Singapore. I am a Chief Surgeon in a Community Hospital in the northeast of Italy. “Since 35 years” I can say that, as a surgeon, I was born with an endoscope in one hand and the other the knowledge that open surgery is still the benchmark to which every surgeon has to relate. I have made research a personal priority to validate my daily work. I have written “papers” and collaborated with other hospitals and institutions and I am an active member of the EHS and EAES. I am the former President of the Italian Society of LaparoEndoscopic Surgery, the SICE.