By Michael Friebe

Only two half days in Vienna this year. And because of that only 14km combined walking through the halls and only 800 words for the report. Left my home Thursday at 08:00 and came back Friday 18:30. With all my year-round extensive travelling this actually may be the way to go in the coming years :-)

Yes, there are still reasons to travel from Europe to Chicago and — depending on where you come from — stand hours in an immigration line and spend lots on accommodation and food, not to forget the associated jetlag. But, there are less and less! ECR attendance has been going up significantly and my feeling was that RSNA 2016 had much lower attendance than in previous years... I am sure that the proposed AMERICA FIRST travel regulations will also not help to boost attendance numbers this year.



I am still debating on whether I will skip Chicago this year for the first time in 26 years.

And, I do not know how that always works, but ECR was despite a very early March date relatively warm and sunny again ... at least on Thursday and Friday, when I was there. It was really packed though ... during certain hours on Friday even a little too crowded. So success also has its price, and growing much more will be limited by the available space in Vienna.

The entrance hall is always a gathering point with interesting shows and displays. This year displaying a rather interesting flowery skull (?) - I am sure that the selfie picture with me will make some readers comment ... quite OK!

Siemens Healthcare — now Healthineers — was always a strong supporter of the ECR, but this year it was by far the most dominant sponsor. The entire outside exhibition hall was covered with their advertisement and also the inside paneling in the congress hall showed the changing colors and logos of the southern German manufacturer.

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