MR conferences

The two main conferences for the Korean MRI community -- icMRI and ISMRM annual meetings -- that are usually held before summer will instead take place either entirely on-line (ISMRM) or late in the year (icMRI). The official scientific conference of KSMRM, icMRI, which this year will be held jointly with the newly-formed Asian Society for MRM, was first delayed from its usual March dates to July, and then postponed again to early November. It was also reduced in length, from 3 days to 2 days, and will be held in a new location in Seoul. On the other hand, the two largest international conferences relevant to MRI, the annual meetings of ISMRM and RSNA, were announced to go fully virtual. In particular, the ISMRM meeting had been delayed from its original dates in April to August, but ultimately was decided to go on-line only. These are big changes and a great challenge for the meeting organizers. For many small academic societies, such changes are directly related to their financial well-being for the year. It remains to be seen if such on-line conferences will be more widespread from now on.