ERS Congress 2024

The ERS exhibition is an area of Congress where ERS industry partners can communicate directly with ERS members and healthcare professionals about new products and medicines. 

Promotion of prescription medicines is limited to healthcare professionals only. This means that entry into the exhibition area at ERS Congress is available only to healthcare professionals. It is against the law for companies to promote prescription medicines to members of the public. Patients and representatives of patient organisations are not categorised as healthcare professionals in Austria.* 

In accordance with industry and national guidelines, patients, patient representatives, and members of the public who are attending the ERS Congress are not permitted to enter the ERS Congress exhibition area in Vienna.  

Please note that if you are a healthcare professional and you choose to register as a patient representative at a reduced cost via ELF, you are not permitted to enter the ERS Congress exhibition area or access any industry-sponsored sessions. 

ERS and ELF staff and the Congress security team are instructed to respect these guidelines. We ask you to understand that we work within these guidelines at the request of our industry partners and the laws put in place by the country hosting this year’s ERS Congress.  

ERS Congress industry partners welcome interaction with Congress delegates that are not categorised as healthcare professionals and ask you arrange to meet your contacts in other areas of the Congress centre. The World Village is a dedicated space at the ERS Congress for delegates to gather, strengthen existing partnerships, make new connections and find out more about ERS’s ongoing initiatives. 

For further information regarding the ERS exhibition area please contact corporate.relations@ersnet.org who will be happy to help. 

*Definition of healthcare professionals (Users) 

Austrian Medical Products Act 

• 2. (1) “Users” are physicians, dentists, veterinary surgeons, midwives, members of the nursing profession, medical laboratory services and paramedic services, as well as the legal entities of hospitals without in-house hospital pharmacies, and other medical facilities, provided that they require medicinal products in the course of their profession.

ERS and ELF provide a dedicated Congress registration category, and reduced cost, for patient organisations and their representatives. The patient representative registration aims to make Congress more affordable and accessible, particularly to those who wish to bring more than one member of their organisation.

Members of the ELF Patient Advisory Committee and Patient Advisory Groups are entitled to further benefits from the ERS Congress.

Who is eligible?

Registration for the ERS Congress at the reduced patient representative rate is open to patients, carers, paid staff and volunteers linked with a respiratory patient organisation. The respiratory patient organisation must be a member of ELF’s patient organisation network. To participate in future events, new patient organisations can easily register to join the network for free.

Practicing healthcare professionals are not eligible for the patient registration unless they attend solely as a patient representative, in which case they are unable to access the industry-sponsored content at the Congress (see the next section for more information). A range of registration types are available to healthcare professionals depending on their age, specialism and stage of their career. Further details can be found on the ERS website.

What do I get with a patient representative registration?

Patient representatives attending the Congress either online or in person can choose to come for the Patient Organisation Networking Day (Saturday 7 September) only. If eligible, we will provide them with a free Saturday day pass to access Congress.

For a reduced rate of €115, patient representatives can attend the whole Congress in person or €50 to attend the whole Congress online. This allows them to access the ELF Patient Organisation Networking Day and the wide variety of informative sessions available at the ERS Congress.

Patient representatives cannot access any industry-sponsored content. This is due to strict regulation around marketing drugs and medical equipment to patients and the public. The ERS Congress is closely monitored to ensure it follows these laws and we ask that any patient representatives attending please follow these rules.

ELF travel bursary

ELF offers a limited number of travel bursaries to support patient organisations with the costs of travel and accommodation to attend the Patient Organisation Networking Day or the full Congress in person in Vienna, Austria. There are no bursaries available for those attending Congress online.

Applications for bursaries for this year’s Congress have now closed.  

How to register

All patient representatives, PAG and PAC members wishing to attend the Congress should have now completed our application form. We will be contact with you about the next steps in your registration. If you have any questions about your application, please contact us.

Registration is now closed.