Official figures released today by the European Society of Radiology (ESR) show that the number of professional delegates coming from Russia and the Netherlands increased markedly at ECR 2013, while there were noticeably fewer attendees from Italy, Austria, France, and China.
As the table shows, substantial growth in professional participants from the Russian Federation and the Netherlands occurred at this year's congress, compared with ECR 2012. Attendance from Denmark, Norway, Japan, and Hungary also registered a significant increase.
| Professional attendance at ECR: Top 20 countries | ||
| Country | 2013 | 2012 |
| Italy | 981 | 1,205 |
| Austria | 973 | 1,125 |
| Germany | 962 | 965 |
| U.K. | 511 | 509 |
| Netherlands | 473 | 376 |
| Russian Federation | 419 | 318 |
| Spain | 401 | 387 |
| Japan | 367 | 337 |
| Denmark | 358 | 313 |
| Belgium | 326 | 318 |
| Norway | 312 | 248 |
| Romania | 312 | 332 |
| France | 304 | 386 |
| Switzerland | 302 | 209 |
| China | 300 | 365 |
| Poland | 299 | 308 |
| U.S. | 262 | 248 |
| Sweden | 247 | 231 |
| Hungary | 225 | 183 |
| Finland | 219 | 235 |
Overall attendance edged up slightly this year. There were 11,601 professional delegates at ECR 2013, plus 8,497 industry attendees, making a total of 20,098. In comparison, there were 20,023 participants (11,574 professional, 8,449 industry) at ECR 2012, which was 97 fewer than in 2011.
Furthermore, the new service, ECR Live, also was a success and made it easier to cover the congress remotely, the ESR stated. More than 1,400 lectures were broadcast online in real-time, and more than 3,000 people registered for the service. ECR Live viewers could leave comments and ask lecturers questions via an integrated social media stream, which could also be viewed as a separate Social Media Wall, both online and on screens at the congress venue. More than 3,000 messages sent through Facebook, Twitter, and ECR Live's built-in chat function were displayed on the Social Media Wall.
These figures are in stark contrast to attendance at the RSNA 2012 in Chicago, which fell by 9% in 2012 compared with the 2011 congress. Total unaudited attendance at RSNA 2012 was 52,980, compared with 58,232 the year before.
RSNA 2012 saw declines in both professional and exhibitor attendees, but the biggest drop was due to a change in RSNA policy this year regarding guests, according to a report posted on 3 December 2012 by our sister site, AuntMinnie.com. In 2012, RSNA initiated a guest registration fee, which may have contributed to a 36% drop in attendees in the "guest/other" category, from 8,415 attendees in 2011 to 5,413 attendees in 2012.
The number of professional attendees at RSNA 2012 was 26,273, down 4% compared with 27,308 attendees at the 2011 meeting. In the exhibitor category, there were 21,294 attendees, down 5% compared with 22,509 attendees in 2011.
