Long Range Planning Committee Update

John P. Dormans, MD, FACS
Long Range Planning Committee Chair

The Long Range Planning Committee has been tasked to pick both the 2019 and 2020 Annual Meeting & Course and IMAST venue locations. As per the international vs. North American rotation of meeting sites, the 2019 Annual Meeting will be located in North America, and 2019 IMAST will be located internationally.

After reviewing all 2019 Annual Meeting proposals and completing site visits to the top locations, the Long Range Planning Committee strongly recommended Montréal, Canada and the recommendation was approved by the Board at their recent meeting. The 2019 Annual Meeting & Course will tentatively be held September 18-21, 2019.

The Palais des Congrés de Montréal (convention center) is very well located in central Montréal, just a few blocks from the old city and with many restaurants and attractions within easy walking distance. Space is very good, with room for growth and options for program changes (such as more or fewer breakouts, Half-Day Courses, etc.). There are a number of hotels at various levels within five blocks of the center. Most of those hotels are offering complimentary internet in guestrooms, some complimentary upgrades and standard 1 complimentary room night for every 40 used by SRS. 2019 rates offered range from $166 (Dauphin) to $226 (InterContinental) for single rooms in US dollars at the current exchange rate.

The Palais des Congrés is offering a 50 percent discount on their normal rental charges. Tourisme Montréal will pay the remaining 50 percent, so the convention center will be free of charge to SRS. Tourisme Montréal will also contribute $10 CAD per room, per night to a maximum of $26,050 CAD to the SRS.

Montreal has an excellent, state of the art airport with direct flights from 23 US cities and many international cities, including Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Beijing, Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Rome, Venice and Zurich. Depending on traffic, the venue is approximately 20-25 minutes by taxi from the airport and costs approximately $40 CAD.

There are a number of good options for the Leadership Dinner and Friday reception. Dr. Dormans and Ms. Goulding visited a few of the options, most of which were felt to be good, and almost all are within a 20 minute drive of the convention center and hotels.

Montreal is a very attractive city, with excellent restaurants, hotels and attractions and very good air access. The convention center is well designed, well located and attractive. Participants would have easy access to hotels, the meeting and Montreal attractions. With the support package offered by the convention center and Tourisme Montreal, the financial aspect is outstanding. We highly recommend Montreal for the 2019 Annual Meeting & Course.

Dr. Dormans and Ms. Goulding will soon be completing site visits to Amsterdam, Netherlands, Hamburg, Germany and Birmingham, England to look at potential 2019 or 2020 IMAST locations.

Chair: John P. Dormans, MD Committee: Steven D. Glassman, MD; Ferran Pellisé Urquiza, MD, PhD; Marinus de Kleuver, MD, PhD; David W. Polly, Jr., MD; Henry F.H. Halm, MD; Ronald A. Lehman, Jr., MD