RSNA 2016: The numbers paint a picture of good things to come, now just days away

If a picture paints a thousand words, perhaps a number paints a thousand pictures.

Before you begin pondering the profundity of that possibility, consider some numbers that will fill out the picture you have in your mind of RSNA 2016 as you get ready to go.

Each year, the Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America is the largest single medical trade show in the U.S. In-person attendance is expected to again top 50,000 at this, the organization’s 102nd gathering.

HIMSS (the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) has been inching closer, topping 43,000 this year. And after that, the drop in competition is pretty steep.

Trade Show Executive lists among the runners-up the annual meetings of the Society for Neuroscience (around 30,000), the American Society of Hematology and the American Academy of Ophthalmology (both around 25,000), and the American Dental Association and American Association for Clinical Chemistry (both around 20,000).

It’s clear the TSE list isn’t exhaustive, since it doesn’t include the American College of Cardiology and some others you’d expect to see. Still, I’m thinking it does provide an illustrative snapshot, for the outlet also reports that, two years ago, RSNA’s 100th annual meeting saw its international attendance top 10,000 for the first time and its virtual attendance soar above 5,500.

And then there’s the business at RSNA by the numbers. Expo Marketing, the exhibit-design firm, reports that 75 percent of attendees have a role in purchasing products seen at RSNA, 79 percent go to RSNA to see new stuff and each attendee spends an average of 12.1 hours in the exhibit halls.

For its part, RSNA, which employs more than 220 people, has published some fascinating facts and figures of its own on the 2016 meeting.

Several caught my eye:

• Total registration for professionals and guests is up 6 percent over last year.
• Nearly 100 exhibitors (96, to be precise) are first-timers at RSNA.
• Attendees will contribute $131 million to Chicago’s economy.
• At last year’s meeting, RSNA’s waste-diversion efforts saved 3,298 trees, 15,324 gallons of oil and close to 1,357,860 gallons of water.

I could go on but won’t. However, I would be remiss if I failed to add one more factoid to this by-the-numbers picture of RSNA 2016: McCormick Place is around eight and a half miles from Wrigley Field, the ivy-walled home of the Chicago Cubs, who just won their first World Series title in 108 years.

Fellow attendee, I send you every good wish—too many in number to count—for a rewarding and productive RSNA 2016.