My Site Visit to Cape Town!

In preparation for each annual meeting, a team of people visit the site of the upcoming annual meeting. This trip includes the program chair (me), the ISMRM president (Mark Griswold), a few staff from the Central Office, and staff from the audiovisual partner, ETS. During this visit, the team accomplishes a lot of preparation for the annual meeting to make sure that the entire event, including behind-the-scenes aspects, runs smoothly.

I’ve just returned from our site visit to Cape Town, and now I am even more excited for the next annual ISMRM meeting (09-14 May 2026). The people of this city are very warm and welcoming. South Africa is a place that celebrates its diversity; there are 12 official languages!

Cape Town’s vibrant culture and natural beauty are accompanied by real socioeconomic contrasts. Our presence here is a chance to engage meaningfully with these realities and to reaffirm our commitment to equity in global science and healthcare. Hosting ISMRM in Cape Town allows us to learn from local experts, understand diverse healthcare contexts, and celebrate the value of global and inclusive collaboration.

Our meeting will be held at the Cape Town Convention Centre, which is a very bright space filled with natural light. You will always have a sense of where you are, as you will be able to look out on Cape Town. This meeting will feature the scientific research that our community has been working on, along with educational content. While I am very excited about the natural light, we also made sure the rooms are dark enough to clearly see projected MR images. Within the convention centre, there are many locations to connect with each other in small groups.

From the convention centre, you can easily walk to several hotels within a block or two. You can stroll to the waterfront, which has a variety of restaurants serving the delicious (and extremely affordable) food and wine that Cape Town is known for. Should you desire, you can also run to the waterfront. I ran past the waterfront and along Sea Point Promenade (a running spot recommended by many people that I met in Cape Town). I also checked out the parkrun at Green Point Park. There’s a lovely community there that would welcome anyone to join their Saturday morning run.

Cape Town is a big city, and, like other cities, there are places where you should be cautious. Nevertheless, the travel routes to and from the airport, routes between the hotels and conference centre, and around the waterfront are safe. We have colleagues who live in and love Cape Town, and we greatly appreciate that they are enthusiastically welcoming us to this city.

We toured the convention centre, met with our local ISMRM colleagues, and stayed in the area around the convention centre. It is a long way to go from where we live, so we made sure to make the most of the trip. With a local MRI expert, I climbed to the top of Table Mountain; we were stuck in a cloud, so I’ll need to do it again in May to see the view. One day, we toured Cape Point to see the Cape of Good Hope (the southwesternmost point in Africa), where we saw elands, a type of antelope. On our return to the city center, we stopped off at Boulders Beach to see the penguins (as cute as expected). We also encountered dassies, which look like a large rodent, but are the closest living relatives of elephants!

To complete our visit (and at our own expense), we drove a few hours for a two-day safari where we spotted another 42 different animal, bird, and reptile species; South Africa is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. The day we left, we got stuck in an elephant traffic jam for 20 minutes, but that was alright, because we got to watch a baby elephant play the whole time. Not a bad traffic jam.

I am very excited to see you all in Cape Town, hear about your latest scientific progress, learn from the educational sessions, and connect with you all. Come for the science and ISMRM community and stay a bit longer to see what Cape Town and South Africa have to offer! Until then, watch the videos from our Cape Town site visit on our YouTube channel – they will give you a glimpse of the incredible experience that awaits.

Katy Keenan, Ph.D.
2026 Annual Meeting Program Chair