Fascinating Facts from the College: Convocation in Boston—A Statistical History

Clinical Congress 2018 in Boston, MA, will be just the seventh time the event has been held in the city, and the first since 1950. Clinical Congress was first held in Boston in October 1915. The five-day event was capped at 1,500 attendees due to capacity concerns within the operating amphitheaters, lecture rooms, and laboratories of the several hospitals and medicals schools that were hosting the events. Convocation took place on October 29, 1915, and Fellowship was conferred upon 484 candidates.

Initiate numbers at subsequent Convocations in Boston saw mild fluctuations; 756 Fellows were inducted in 1922, 673 Fellows in 1928, 590 Fellows in 1934, and 624 Fellows in 1941.

The last time Clinical Congress was held in Boston was October 23–27, 1950. Convocation occurred on the last day of the convention, and 979 initiates took part in the ceremony within the regal interior of Symphony Hall, built in 1900 and located in the heart of Boston, three miles from where Clinical Congress 2018 will be held.

The primary event space for Clinical Congress 2018 is the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, built in 2004. At this year’s Clinical Congress, 11,500 scientific attendees are expected to attend, and more than 1,950 initiates will be inducted at the Convocation ceremony, which will take place on the October 21. The impressive and modern setting for this year’s Clinical Congress means that the College does not need to worry about limiting the number of attendees due to capacity concerns like they did 103 years ago.