esc congress esc congress the esc congress is the annual congress of the european society of cardiology (esc), the largest medical congress in europe. it gathers over 30,000 active participants (mainly cardiologists) and takes place every year in august/september in a different european city. list of esc congresses the first esc congress was held in 1950 and from then on every 4 years until 1988, when it became an annual event. 1984 - düsseldorf 1988 - vienna 1989 - nice 1990 - stockholm 1991 - amsterdam 1992 - barcelona 1993 - nice 1994 - berlin 1995 - amsterdam 1996 - birmingham 1997 - stockholm 1998 - vienna 1999 - barcelona 2000 - amsterdam 2001 - stockholm 2002 - berlin 2003 - vienna 2004 - munich 2005 - stockholm 2006 - barcelona 2007 - vienna 2008 - munich 2009 - barcelona 2010 - stockholm 2011 - paris 2012 - munich 2013 - amsterdam 2014 - barcelona 2015 - london 2016 - rome 2017 - barcelona 2018 - munich 2019 - paris 2020 - amsterdam 2021 - london after the 2017 esc congress, barcelona became the city with most congresses since 1988(6), followed by stockholm (5) and then by amsterdam and vienna and munich (4 times each as of 2018). some congresses (1994 and 2006) were organised jointly with the world heart federation under the name of "world congress of cardiology".