MICCAI 2018 Daily - Monday

another person who comes more from the artificial intelligence domain. Then we have two very interesting speakers as well from the CAI area, and particularly the areas of robotics and endoscopy. I really think people should be looking forward to those. They will cover from clinical aspects to more technical aspects. From big data to advanced robotics. One thing that from a scientific point of view is less shiny, but is very important from the point of view of the future of the conference and building a strong community, is that this year, for the first time, we have an explicit code of conduct. This code of conduct has been signed off by everybody when they registered for the conference. It is very important, because we want to send a strong signal to the community that we want this to be a safe environment where everybody can feel comfortable and respected and valued, in respect of the many elements in which we are diverse as a community. We are all very curious and excited about the conference. I’m also very curious about where our conference and our community are going to evolve in the next year. We have started an inflection point. A different emphasis on certain topics like artificial intelligence and deep learning. A different role in the way that industry is engaged in this event. Demographics are changing as well. This year, for the first time, we have South Korea as the fifth largest country in terms of delegates. It goes USA, Germany, the UK, China, South Korea, then France. South Korea pretty much ties with China. That signals that there is a huge community in certain geographies that we need to embrace. We want to understand the strengths of those communities and how we can integrate. This combination of demographics, industry, and topics is telling me that we are growing in a different direction and I’m really pleased about that and how it may affect our conference. On the other hand, this year I’ve been to other conferences in related fields that have grown enormously in the last few years with 6,000 or more attendees. Sometimes I’ve felt that there has been a loss of the sense of community and ability to interact with people that we still have at MICCAI. I would like certain things in our community to remain. The challenge is how we embrace all of these developments but still remain true to our own culture that we have developed over the last 20 years. It takes many people to organise a conference such as this and to make it run smoothly. We have had a fantastic involvement by the students. The MICCAI Student Board has done an excellent job. This year, perhaps because I have been more directly interacting with them, I was really impressed by the number of activities they have organised. All kinds of social activities, but also some new things which I’m looking forward to. For the first time, we will have a MICCAI talent show! We want to get to know people in our community from a completely different angle: an artistic angle. Therewill be a number of instruments available during the gala dinner for people to play. We have a few groups who have signed up to do performances, but it is still possible to join in. I’d also like to say a big thanks to the entire organising committee. They have done a fantastic job in helping to put this event together. A Word from Alex 7 Monday