The 54th AHRA Annual Meeting and Exposition runs July 12 to 15, 2026, at the Orlando World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida. This is the flagship event for AHRA, the Association for Medical Imaging Management, the professional society for radiology administrators, imaging directors, modality managers, PACS administrators, and service line leaders in the United States. If you manage an imaging service line at a hospital, run a freestanding imaging center, lead modality teams in CT, MRI, ultrasound, mammography, nuclear medicine, or interventional radiology, or sit on the senior team that owns radiology operations inside a health system, this is your room.
This guide covers everything an attendee needs to plan a productive AHRA 2026: the program, the new partnership with ARIN, the venue, the host city, what to expect from the exhibit hall, continuing education credit toward the CRA, registration logistics, and the operational realities your peers will be discussing in 2026. The goal is to give you a single complete reference so you can decide whether to attend, who from your team should travel, what sessions to prioritize, and how to make the trip earn its keep.
Why AHRA matters in 2026
Imaging is in a strange moment. Volume is back above pre-pandemic baselines on most modalities, MRI and CT capacity is the rate limiter for downstream service lines from oncology to cardiology, and the rad tech and modality tech workforce is the tightest it has been in a generation. Hospital boards are asking imaging leaders for more throughput on the existing footprint, more weekend and evening capacity without proportional FTE growth, and a clear answer on how AI in imaging fits into the operating budget for the next three years. None of that is solvable from a desk. It gets solved by talking to peers who have already worked the problem.
AHRA exists for that. The Annual Meeting is the one event per year where the people running imaging operations gather as a group rather than scattered across the floors of HIMSS, RSNA, or RBMA. The room is operationally focused, the sessions are written by working administrators rather than vendor marketing teams, and the program is calibrated to what actually shows up in your inbox on a Monday morning. For a department director or modality manager who can only attend one national event per year, AHRA tends to be the most direct match between conference content and day-to-day responsibilities.
The 2026 meeting carries extra weight because of a new development. AHRA is hosting the meeting in partnership with the Association for Radiologic and Imaging Nursing (ARIN). That partnership opens the program to radiology nursing leadership and creates one of the first national venues where imaging administration and radiology nursing leadership are sharing sessions, exhibit hall, and continuing education content. If you have ever tried to coordinate workflow between your imaging operations team and the nursing team that supports interventional radiology, sedation, biopsy, and contrast administration, you know how rare that joint conversation is.
When and where is AHRA 2026?
Dates: Sunday, July 12, 2026, through Wednesday, July 15, 2026 Host venue: Orlando World Center Marriott Venue address: 8701 World Center Drive, Orlando, Florida 32821 Host city: Orlando, Florida Format: In-person primary, with on-demand content available post-event per recent AHRA practice Edition: 54th Annual Meeting and Exposition Hosting partnership: Co-hosted with the Association for Radiologic and Imaging Nursing (ARIN)
The Orlando World Center Marriott is a large resort property with on-site lodging, multiple ballrooms and breakout spaces, and a self-contained conference footprint, which keeps attendees inside the venue for most of the program. The property is approximately 20 minutes from Orlando International Airport (MCO) by car and is located in the Lake Buena Vista area, immediately adjacent to Walt Disney World. The venue and the surrounding area make this a friendlier than usual trip for attendees bringing family, which historically has been part of the appeal of AHRA's summer cadence.
For attendees coming from outside Florida, MCO offers nonstop service from essentially every major US market, plus extensive international connectivity. Ground transportation from MCO to the venue is straightforward, with rideshare and rental car the most common options. The venue offers on-site parking for attendees who drive in. If you are flying in from the West Coast, plan on a long travel day on Saturday or Sunday morning, since the meeting opens Sunday and the highest-value pre-conference sessions and workshops typically take place that day.
Who attends AHRA and how big is the room?
AHRA's membership is roughly 5,000 imaging management professionals worldwide, and the Annual Meeting typically draws between 1,500 and 1,800 attendees and several hundred exhibitor and partner personnel on top. The 2026 meeting is expected to land at the upper end of that range given the new ARIN partnership and continued growth in first-time and new-member attendance that AHRA reported coming out of 2025. That puts AHRA in a useful size band: large enough to have real depth in the exhibit hall and across concurrent education tracks, small enough that you can find specific people across multiple days without the lobby chaos of a 30,000 person event.
The attendee base breaks down into a handful of clear groups. The largest single segment is radiology and imaging administrators at hospitals and health systems, ranging from single-hospital community sites to multi-state integrated networks. Modality managers running CT, MRI, ultrasound, mammography, interventional radiology, nuclear medicine, and PET attend in significant numbers alongside their directors. PACS administrators and imaging informatics leads round out the technical operations side. On the senior end, vice presidents of radiology, chief radiology officers at larger systems, and service line executives attend, often with their direct reports.
Freestanding imaging center operators and outpatient imaging executives are also well represented. The workforce, throughput, and capital dynamics for hospital-based imaging and freestanding imaging are different enough that the program runs content explicitly for each. With the ARIN partnership in 2026, radiology nursing leadership, including interventional radiology nurse managers, imaging nursing educators, and radiology nursing directors, will be on site in larger numbers than in any prior year. If you are an administrator who shares operational workflow with your radiology nursing team, this is a real opportunity to align on shared workflows in person.
Vendor and industry attendance is the other significant block. Imaging informatics vendors, PACS providers, RIS systems, contract labor agencies, workforce scheduling tools, AI in imaging companies, equipment service providers, and a growing roster of AI-enabled recruiting and operational tools exhibit in the hall. The expo at AHRA is meaningfully more workflow-focused than RSNA, which leans diagnostic, and that focus is part of why operational leaders prioritize the trip.
Program structure and what to expect day by day
AHRA structures the Annual Meeting across four days, with a mix of pre-conference workshops, keynote sessions, concurrent education tracks, exhibit hall hours, networking events, and CRA-eligible continuing education. The exact 2026 schedule is published by AHRA closer to the event, but the structure you can plan around is consistent year over year.
Sunday, July 12: Pre-conference workshops and intensives. These are typically half-day or full-day sessions on focused topics such as CRA exam prep, leadership development for new managers, financial fundamentals for imaging administrators, and deep dives on regulatory and accreditation updates. Pre-conference sessions usually require separate registration and fill early. The opening keynote and welcome reception are also Sunday.
Monday, July 13: Full education day with concurrent tracks running across operations, finance, human resources, regulatory compliance, leadership, and informatics. The exhibit hall opens Monday with extended hours and a complimentary lunch in the hall. AHRA holds no competing sessions during exhibit hall time, which is a deliberate scheduling choice that protects vendor conversations from getting squeezed.
Tuesday, July 14: Second full education day, additional exhibit hall hours including Tuesday lunch in the hall, and several networking events including the AHRA design awards and the major evening reception. This is typically the highest-attendance day of the meeting.
Wednesday, July 15: Closing education sessions, capstone keynotes, and event close. Some attendees with longer travel build in a partial Tuesday departure, but the strongest practice is to stay through Wednesday morning since closing sessions often surface the year's takeaways.
The education program runs concurrent tracks, which means an attendee can specialize the trip toward a single thematic focus, such as workforce, operations, finance, leadership, or compliance, or spread across the full program. For first-time attendees, AHRA's recommendation has consistently been to mix at least one track they know well with at least one track outside their comfort zone, since the most valuable conversations tend to happen in sessions outside daily responsibility.
What gets covered: the operational reality discussed at AHRA 2026
AHRA's program is built from a topic survey of working administrators rather than a vendor-supplied roadmap, so the year's session list is a reliable read on what imaging leadership is actually working on. For 2026, the topics you can expect to see surface across multiple tracks include the following.
The imaging workforce remains the single biggest topic. Rad tech vacancy rates at most US hospitals sit well above pre-pandemic baselines, with the gap widest in MRI and ultrasound. Schools produce a relatively fixed number of new techs per year while utilization keeps climbing. Contract labor cost has stayed elevated even as nursing contract spend has softened. Sessions consistently cover hiring strategies, modality cross-training, internal pipeline programs, retention, and the trade-offs between expanded use of agency labor and permanent hire. Workforce sessions are some of the highest-attended at AHRA every year and 2026 is unlikely to break that pattern.
MRI capacity and access is the second major theme. Hospital service line growth in oncology, cardiology, and neurology runs through MRI throughput, which puts imaging leadership in a recurring negotiation about hours, contrast availability, technologist coverage, and capital. Sessions cover throughput optimization, advanced applications including cardiac MRI and prostate MRI, scheduling models, and capital planning for new scanners.
AI in imaging operations is a growing thread. The conversation has shifted from whether AI is real to which specific use cases produce measurable operational value. Sessions cover triage tools, dose monitoring, worklist optimization, scheduling automation, ambient documentation, AI-supported reporting workflows, and the governance frameworks emerging at hospital systems to manage AI deployment. The session list is increasingly written by administrators rather than vendor presenters, which keeps the content honest.
Financial and reimbursement content remains a backbone of the program. Sessions cover payer mix and reimbursement strategy, capital planning, budgeting, financial benchmarking, contract negotiation with imaging service providers, and the financial implications of regulatory changes. The CRA pathway weights financial fluency heavily, and the AHRA program reflects that.
Regulatory and accreditation content covers ACR accreditation, joint commission updates, state and federal regulatory shifts, radiation safety, contrast safety, and the operational implications of changes to coding and documentation requirements. This is the content that most often produces immediate take-home value, because a single regulatory shift can change next month's compliance posture.
With the ARIN partnership in 2026, radiology nursing content expands across multiple tracks. Topics that have been under-represented in prior years, including interventional radiology nursing workflow, sedation programs, contrast reaction protocols, and the integration of nursing into imaging service line operations, get meaningful program time. This is a significant program addition for any administrator whose service line includes IR.
Continuing education credit and CRA pathway
AHRA is the field's primary venue for continuing education credit toward the CRA, the Certified Radiology Administrator credential, which is administered by the Radiology Administration Certification Commission. Sessions at the Annual Meeting carry Category A credit toward CRA maintenance, and most attendees walk out with a meaningful slice of their annual CE requirement covered.
For attendees pursuing the CRA exam, AHRA typically runs CRA exam prep sessions during the pre-conference day on Sunday. These sessions are widely considered the best in-person preparation available for the exam. For credentialed CRAs maintaining the credential, the Annual Meeting is the most efficient way to log Category A credit in a single trip.
In addition to CRA credit, AHRA sessions typically carry continuing education credit for ARRT registered technologists, ASRT-recognized credits, and Florida-specific CE credit for attendees who need it for state licensure. The specific credit allocation for each session is published by AHRA in the program guide. Allow yourself a few minutes during planning to map sessions to your specific credential requirements.
The exhibit hall and how to use it
The AHRA exhibit hall is a working hall, not a marketing showroom. Vendors selling into imaging operations, including PACS and RIS providers, imaging informatics platforms, AI tools, workforce and scheduling systems, contract labor agencies, equipment service providers, recruiting tools, dose monitoring solutions, and a growing roster of operational AI products, all exhibit. The hall is open Monday and Tuesday with deliberately concentrated hours and complimentary lunch in the hall both days. AHRA holds no competing sessions during hall time, which protects the time you can actually spend with vendors.
The structural advantage of AHRA's hall is the lack of dilution. Compared to RSNA, where the diagnostic imaging vendor floor can absorb three full days of walking, the AHRA hall is sized so that a focused administrator can cover every relevant vendor in a single morning. For administrators evaluating specific categories, such as workforce tools, AI deployment, or PACS replacement, the AHRA hall is one of the few national venues where you can have a series of 20 to 30 minute substantive conversations with comparable vendors back to back without the booth chaos of a megaconference.
For first-time attendees, the practical approach is to walk the hall once early on Monday to map the floor, then return Monday afternoon and Tuesday with a written shortlist of conversations. Most vendors will book pre-conference meeting slots in the weeks leading up to the meeting, which compresses your time on the floor.
Networking events and informal program
AHRA's networking program is one of the meeting's quiet strengths. The Sunday welcome reception, Monday and Tuesday evening events, the AHRA design awards, regional chapter meetups, and the various special interest group sessions create multiple paths to find your people without forcing a single mass networking event.
The most useful networking pattern at AHRA tends to be specialty meetups, where modality managers, freestanding center operators, academic medical center administrators, or community hospital directors find each other. AHRA leadership runs first-timer events and new-member breakfasts that are worth attending if this is your first or second meeting, since the introductions there tend to stick.
Outside the formal program, the Orlando World Center Marriott property has multiple bars, restaurants, and lounge areas that absorb informal conversations after sessions wrap. Attendees with families often shift evenings off-property to the Disney and broader Lake Buena Vista entertainment options.
Registration, cost, and the value math
Registration for the AHRA Annual Meeting historically runs in the range of $1,300 to $1,700 for member full-conference registration, with lower rates for early bird registration, retired members, and students. Non-member rates run higher, typically by $400 to $600. Pre-conference workshops require separate registration. AHRA publishes the 2026 registration schedule on its site as the meeting approaches.
Hotel costs at the host property and overflow hotels for the dates run in the $250 to $350 per night range for typical attendees, though earlier booking inside the AHRA room block produces meaningfully better rates. Airfare to MCO is generally one of the more reasonable conference travel costs given the volume of nonstop service.
For most administrators, the full cost of attendance, including registration, hotel, travel, and per diem, lands between $3,500 and $5,500 depending on origin and length of stay. The value math for AHRA is usually clean: a single useful vendor evaluation, a single hire of a peer-recommended consultant, or a single avoided mistake on a capital decision tends to cover the trip cost several times over. For administrators with team development budget, sending a director and a modality manager together is often more productive than sending the director alone, since the meeting content maps across both roles.
Travel logistics for the Orlando trip
The Orlando World Center Marriott sits in Lake Buena Vista, approximately 20 minutes from Orlando International Airport (MCO) and roughly 25 minutes from Universal Orlando. The venue is largely self-contained for meeting purposes, with on-site dining, multiple bars, lounge areas, and on-property recreation including pools and a golf course. Attendees who want to stay close to the meeting can stay entirely on property. Attendees who want broader Orlando access typically rent a car.
Orlando in July is hot and humid, with daytime highs typically in the low to mid 90s Fahrenheit and afternoon thunderstorms common. Plan layers for inside the venue, where air conditioning is aggressive, and short walks outside in light clothing. Florida-resident attendees often fold the meeting into a family trip given the proximity to Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, and SeaWorld, all of which run summer programming during the conference week.
For attendees flying in, the most efficient travel pattern is to arrive late Saturday or early Sunday to catch the Sunday pre-conference content, and depart Wednesday afternoon or evening after the closing sessions. Shorter trips that target only Monday and Tuesday capture most of the main program but miss the pre-conference workshops, which are often the highest take-home-value content of the meeting.
First-timer guidance
If this is your first AHRA, three patterns produce the most value. First, attend the first-timer orientation and the new member events, where AHRA leadership and longtime members do the work of making introductions for you. Second, build a written list of three to five specific operational questions you want answered before you arrive, and use those questions to filter session and exhibit hall choices. Third, plan at least one meal each day with someone you do not know, since the conversations between sessions are where the meeting earns its reputation.
A common first-timer mistake is over-scheduling. The instinct is to fill every breakout slot, which produces a long week and limited recall. The better practice is to leave deliberate gaps for hallway conversations and reflection time, since the most useful content at AHRA frequently comes from the conversation that happens after a session rather than the session itself.
A short note from us at Expa
Expa builds Ambient Recruiter, an AI agent for healthcare recruiters and hiring managers that runs inside their existing Gmail and on their phone. We work with imaging leaders whose recruiting responsibility is part of their administrator role, where the same person who is approving capital and managing modality coverage is also writing replies to candidate emails between meetings. If that describes your week, we would value a short conversation at the meeting about what an ambient AI workflow could look like for your service line. You can find us in the exhibit hall (booth number to be confirmed) or book time in advance through the contact form on our site. The rest of this page is independent of any pitch, since the point is to help you decide whether AHRA 2026 is a useful trip for your team this year.
FAQs about AHRA 2026
When and where is AHRA 2026?
AHRA 2026 runs July 12 to 15, 2026, at the Orlando World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida. The address is 8701 World Center Drive, Orlando, Florida 32821. The meeting is the 54th Annual Meeting and Exposition of AHRA, the Association for Medical Imaging Management.
Who should attend AHRA 2026?
The meeting is built for imaging administrators, radiology directors, modality managers, PACS administrators, freestanding imaging center operators, and the senior leadership of hospital and health system radiology operations. With the 2026 ARIN partnership, radiology nursing leadership is also a primary audience. Vendors and partners selling into imaging operations exhibit and attend in significant numbers.
How many people attend AHRA?
Recent AHRA Annual Meetings have drawn between 1,500 and 1,800 attendees plus several hundred vendor and partner personnel, on a global AHRA membership base of roughly 5,000. The 2026 meeting is expected to land at the upper end of that range given the ARIN partnership and recent growth in first-time and new-member attendance.
What is the ARIN partnership and what does it change for 2026?
The Association for Radiologic and Imaging Nursing (ARIN) is co-hosting AHRA 2026, which is the first time the meeting integrates radiology nursing leadership into the core program at this scale. For administrators whose service lines include interventional radiology, sedation programs, or significant nursing workflow inside imaging operations, the partnership creates one of the first national venues where imaging operations leadership and radiology nursing leadership share sessions, exhibit hall time, and continuing education content.
Does AHRA carry CRA continuing education credit?
Yes. AHRA is the primary venue for Category A continuing education credit toward the CRA, the Certified Radiology Administrator credential. Most sessions at the Annual Meeting carry Category A credit, and most attendees walk out with a meaningful slice of their annual CRA maintenance covered. AHRA also typically runs CRA exam prep during the Sunday pre-conference day.
What does AHRA registration cost?
Member full-conference registration historically runs $1,300 to $1,700 with early-bird discounts available. Non-member rates run $400 to $600 higher. Pre-conference workshops require separate registration. AHRA publishes the official 2026 registration schedule on its site as the meeting approaches.
What is the host hotel and what other lodging is available?
The host property is the Orlando World Center Marriott. AHRA typically runs an official room block at the host hotel plus overflow blocks at nearby Lake Buena Vista hotels. Booking inside the AHRA block produces the best rates and the easiest logistics. Booking opens through AHRA's housing partner as the meeting approaches.
How do I get from the airport to the venue?
Orlando International Airport (MCO) is approximately 20 minutes from the Orlando World Center Marriott by car, depending on traffic. Rideshare is the most common option for solo travel. Rental car is the more common choice for attendees who plan to leave property or who are traveling with family. Airport shuttle and limo services are also available and can be pre-booked.
What is the weather like in Orlando in July?
Hot and humid, with daytime highs typically in the low to mid 90s Fahrenheit and afternoon thunderstorms common. Plan light clothing for outside and layers for inside the venue, where air conditioning is aggressive.
Can I attend AHRA 2026 if I am not a CRA or AHRA member?
Yes. The Annual Meeting is open to members and non-members. Non-member registration runs higher than member registration. The meeting is also commonly used as a path to AHRA membership for first-time attendees, since the value of the meeting tends to make the membership decision straightforward.
How does Expa's Ambient Recruiter help imaging service lines?
Ambient Recruiter is an AI agent that runs inside the administrator's existing Gmail and phone number, drafting personalized candidate follow-up, handling inbound replies, scheduling screens on the administrator's calendar, and pushing structured updates back into the team's system of record. For imaging service lines specifically, it routes by modality, supports ARRT credential verification at scale, and handles contract and FTE workflows in parallel from the same inbox. We will be at AHRA 2026 and welcome a working conversation with administrators evaluating ambient AI tools for their service line.
