The Annual Meeting, the most important event of the Society's calendar, is held in a different European country each year. The Postgraduate Course covers a specific topic each year but all annual meetings are devoted to the main theme of "Abdominal Imaging and Intervention".
The meetings consist of invited educational lectures, tutorials, scientific presentations and satellite symposia structured in conjunction with our industrial partners. They are organised by the ESGAR Office together with a local committee chaired by the meeting president. The scientific programme of the meetings is developed by the Programme Committee, a sub-committee of the Executive Committee.

In realising the objective of creating links between continents and other Societies the 1st Joint Meeting with the Society of Abdominal Radiologists (SAR) took place to general acclaim in Orlando in 2002 and was followed by the 2nd Joint Meeting in Greece in 2006. After the political changes in Eastern Europe, the Society has been actively promoting exchanges across the old divide since its foundation. The first meeting in Eastern Europe took place in Budapest/HU in 2003.

Since its foundation the Society has been closely associated with the European Association of Radiology (EAR) and the European Congress of Radiology (ECR). The members of ESGAR have played a central role in the evolution of European radiology, the establishment of their sub-speciality and the development of a specific educational curriculum, today known as the ETC, European Training Curriculum. In March 2007 both EAR and ECR agreed to integrate all their functions into the newly founded European Society of Radiology (ESR). ESGAR is represented in various committees of the ESR and involved in the programme planning of ECR. The Society has developed a strategy to promote teaching across Europe in specific aspects of its discipline by means of peripatetic hands-on workshops with a high teacher to student ratio. The first series of workshops commenced in September 2003 in Amsterdam/NL, where an expert ESGAR faculty taught two groups of 40 students the technique and interpretation of CT Colonography (CTC). Since 2007, additional series of workshops have been developed to different topics. Today, ESGAR workshops, be it on-line or on-site, keep playing a very important role in educating Radiologists around the world. ESGAR workshops are recognised by many national Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiological societies around the globe.

Multidisciplinary workshops are organised in collaboration with various clinical societies such as the ESCP (European Society of Coloproctology), ESDO (European Society of Digestive Oncology), EPC (European Pancreatic Club), EDS (European Society of Digestive Surgery) and ECCO (European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation).
ESGAR is a member society of the UEG, United European Gastroenterology and is represented in various committees, contributing to the organisation of the UEG week and participating in the work of all committees.
Another important and very successful initiative of the Society to promote GI imaging among new generations of radiologists and senior residents is the Junior ESGAR Summer School. The structure consists of a five-day programme, based on topics from GI sub-specialty European curriculum. The first Summer School took place in Rome/IT in 2015. The Summer School is repeated annually in July.


The officers of the Society believe that the founders' aims and ambitions have been fulfilled. Today, the Society represents a major forum for all European radiologists interested in this subspecialty. It has succeeded in transferring knowledge and information across Europe, has generated integration and friendship amongst radiologists in this particular field and encouraged close multidisciplinary co-operation with gastroenterologists, surgeons and pathologists. Regarding its future, the Society is committed to creating closer links with other groups involved in gastroenterology.