For the first time ever, the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) 2020 will not only feature an Opening Ceremony, as in previous years, but also a Grand Finale. Based on the themes of the congress’s Children in Focus programme, the Sunday session will include three talks by accomplished teenage and young adult speakers. With an increasingly diverse group of professionals attending ECR each year, there has been an effort to increase the broader, non-scientific content offered at the congress. With this in mind, the Grand Finale at ECR 2020 will aim to appeal to everyone in a colourful fusion of inspirational talks, musical performances and visual spectacles. The highlights of the session will come from three extraordinary young speakers sharing their thought-provoking personal stories:

Memory Banda (Malawi)
A 23-year-old international girl’s rights activist who, as a teenager, defied her villages traditions of forced child marriage and successfully campaigned to raise the age of marriage from 15 to 18 in Malawi.

Tanishq Abraham (USA)
A 16-year-old child genius who started attending college classes at the age of seven, spoke at a NASA conference at the age of nine and is now working towards a PhD in biomedical engineering.

Arav Hak (India)
A 15-year-old who raised over 50,000 euros going door-to-door in his city and taking on a number of charity challenges to raise money for terminally ill children in his city.

Having spoken at TED talks and other international conferences in the past, all three special guest lecturers are experienced speakers, and are sure to be a unique highlight of the congress, unlike anything seen at ECR before. Their personal stories will be interweaved with a flow of live musical and visual performances with plenty of surprises along the way.

As with the rest of the Children in Focus programme, the Grand Finale will be open to both congress attendees and the public with content that is relevant and interesting to all age groups and professions. The ESR encourages the public to attend this special session, which will be completely free of charge. 

The ECR Grand Finale will take place at 12:30-14:00 on Sunday, March 15, 2020 in the Forum (Room A) of the Austria Center Vienna.

For those wishing to attend the entire ECR 2020 for a special reduced early fee, click here.