A focus on attracting large association events has put Vienna in good health, with 77,000 international delegates due to attend 10 major congresses in the city this year – eight of them in the medical sector.
The wins for the Austria Center Vienna – the Austrian capital’s largest venue – highlight both the city’s ability to stage medical congresses with complex technical requirements and the reputation of its scientists and researchers, who help to attract specialist conferences to Vienna.
Austria has a tradition of innovation in health and medical technology stretching back to the 18th century, with the development of the Vienna Medical Schools. Today Vienna is known as a growing knowledge centre for medical technologies, including the development and production of medical devices and a burgeoning life science sector, with a particular focus on human medicine-related research. Vienna is home to nine universities, five technical colleges and around 1,000 research institutions. Key infrastructure in this knowledge economy includes the Campus Vienna Biocenter for biotechnology, Campus MedUni Vienna for biomedicine-related research and Vienna University of Technology, with expertise in biomechanics and biomedical engineering. In 2012, the Life Science Cluster Vienna counted more than 588 companies of which 378 were biotech/pharma and medtech companies.
Vienna will welcome 20,000 radiologists for the The European Congress of Radiology in early March, followed by the Congress of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists. An estimated 8,000 kidney specialists are expected to attend the European Renal Association – European Dialysis and Transplantation Association Congress in May.
In September, 5,000 neuropsychologists will take part in the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress, before making way for 9,000 specialists at the Congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.
In October, 9,000 gastroenterologists will travel to Vienna for United European Gastroenterology Week, while 5,000 pharmacology experts will take part in the Annual European Congress of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. And finally, the venue will welcome 1,400 physicians in November for the European Public Health Conference.
Susanne Baumann-Söllner, managing director of the Austria Center Vienna, said: “I’m very pleased that our efforts over the past few years – not only the redesign of the venue, in particular the new furniture, the Business Lounge and the new lighting concept in Hall A, but also the dedication of our sales team and project managers when it comes to staging conferences – are now clearly bearing fruit. Especially in the last three years we have shown just how effective the Austria Centre Vienna is at staging successful international congresses.”
