MICCAI 2019

MICCAI 2019 DAILY 5 Leo Joskowicz When choosing a location for the conference, is there a danger that you exclude some researchers who can’t make the trip? This is the way an international organisation works. You switch between continents on purpose to give exposure to different parts of the world. It happens when you do the conference in Europe or in the Americas too, where you would have a larger presence from that region. This is done on purpose and is the nature of an international organisation. Being in Shenzhen this year gives a lot of people the opportunity to more easily attend, both from China and the rest of Asia. It is the nature of the rotation which tries to give different regions an opportunity to take part. "Being in Shenzhen this year gives a lot of people the opportunity to more easily attend, both from China and the rest of Asia." This also extends to the industry. As you said, most of the companies in attendance are Chinese. Would it have been better to have some other companies from other regions attend and join the talks? I think there is a presence, if not necessarily in the exhibit, of researchers and people from industry from other parts of the world. It is only natural that the locals have a larger presence. We do have GE as a large sponsor. It has to dowith alignment of the strategic directions that the different companies choose. It doesn’t necessarily have to be that all the large European and American companies are here. Their presence is not in the booths, but in the participants. You spoke about the rotation, and I know that next year’s conference is very close to your heart. Can you tell us more? Yes, I’m very happy to organise MICCAI 2020 with Daniel Racoceanu in Lima, Peru. I’m originally from Mexico, I grew up there, so the vision we had was to bring MICCAI to Latin America for the first time. We put the bid in four years ago and are so happy about it. We want to bring a similar effect to Latin America as we have to China this year, so that people from that region who would otherwise not necessarily attend come to the meeting and get some exposure.