Dear colleagues,

It is a great honour for me to invite and welcome you – also on behalf of the Dutch radiological community – to the 31st ESGAR Annual Meeting and Postgraduate Course, which will take place from May 19 – 22, 2020 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

This is the second time that the ESGAR Annual Meeting and Postgraduate Course is held in the Netherlands; the first occasion was in Amsterdam in 1997. In the intervening 23 years ESGAR has grown from an – already at that time – established meeting to the leading gastrointestinal and abdominal imaging meeting.

The ESGAR 2020 Annual meeting and Postgraduate Course brings you a state of the art, in depth overview of gastrointestinal and abdominal radiology in 2020 and beyond. Experts in the field will provide you with an update on topics from your daily practice as well as what is new in the field. Educational formats include lectures, tutorials, hands-on workshops, educational pathway of the European training curriculum (School of ESGAR), Cases of the Day, and rad-path education (Nick Gourtsoyiannis’ Foundation Course). The Postgraduate Course “Gastrointestinal cancer and inflammatory disease: the road ahead” will highlight imaging in colon cancer, small bowel polyps and tumours, perianal fistulas and gastrointestinal side effects in oncologic treatment. Cutting edge science is presented for all those looking for the next steps in gastrointestinal and abdominal radiology. ESGAR 2020 will also be the place to meet, have a cup of coffee with your co-workers and friends and a place to get to know new colleagues.

The meeting venue is the RAI Congress Centre that has ample facilities and is very well connected to the airport and the city centre. The venue has a direct train connection (11 minutes) to Schiphol airport; one of the main hubs in Europe with nonstop flights to over 300 cities. The underground will take you from the RAI to the historic canal area and the Central Station in eight minutes. Multiple fine hotels are within walking distance of the venue and many other hotels are in easy reach by underground, tram or taxi.

Apart from this very interesting meeting, Amsterdam itself has much to offer: the vibrant city centre with its rich history, canals and bridges, world-renowned museums, old and new eye-catching buildings (such as Central Station, Rijksmuseum, Eye, NEMO), parks, shopping areas as “De negen straatjes” as well as new developments such as the IJ waterfront.

The 31st ESGAR Annual Meeting and Postgraduate Course promises to be the next successful ESGAR meeting. I hope to welcome and meet you in Amsterdam in 2020!

Prof. Jaap Stoker
ESGAR 2020 Meeting President