The WCDP2011 conference themes have been choosen to move the community forward in reducing the burden of drowning worldwide.

Each area looks at the problem of drowning from a different but equally important perspective. The conference hopes to have a broad range of experiences, projects and research highlighted across all streams.

The themes are as follows: (for further information please click the link)

• The Drowning Research stream focuses on high quality and innovative drowning focused research from across a range of disciplines and subjects.
• The Child Drowning Intervention stream will facilitate the coming together of research, policy and practice for the purpose of identifying, confirming and pondering strategies to prevent child drowning.
• The Emergency Response and Medical Issues stream will cover a diverse range of issues of interest to medical professionals and medical researchers.
• The Advances in Lifesaving stream will focus on lifesavers from across the world promoting their skills, equipment, achievements, as well as seeking ideas for improving standards.
• The Swimming and Water Safety education stream is about building and sharing skills around water safety programs in all areas of the globe, to protect against drowning and preparing children for aquatic recreation activity.
• The Disasters and Climate Change stream will focus on the increased awareness of disaster reduction strategies, and how preventing these drowning deaths poses many policy, economic and education challenges.
• The Regional Perspectives stream of the conference will focus on regional issues of drowning and the development of prevention systems with an emphasis on low and middle income countries.
• The Lifesaving Sport and Development stream will focus on innovation and advances in ILS lifesaving sport and sport development.
• The Partnerships and Collaborations stream will focus on partnerships and collaborations aimed to preventing drowning that occur at all levels and across different sectors. 
• The Activities and Occupations stream will focus on research, policy and practice which is targeted at a specific activity or occupation to reduce or prevent drowning such as scuba diving, boating and snorkelling amongst others.