Where Does Cognitive Neuroscience Society Meet?
The Cognitive Neuroscience Society holds its annual meeting in major North American cities, rotating between locations each year. The upcoming 2026 meeting takes place March 7-10 in Vancouver, BC, Canada at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver Hotel.
Recent and Upcoming Meeting Locations
The society follows a flexible rotation pattern across North America, selecting venues that can accommodate 1,400-1,500 attendees from over 30 countries. The most recent meetings demonstrate this geographic spread: Boston hosted in March 2025, Toronto in April 2024, and San Francisco in March 2023. This rotation ensures researchers from different regions have periodic opportunities to attend without extensive travel.
Each annual meeting occupies a full weekend in late March or early April, featuring four days of symposia, poster sessions, and keynote addresses. The society partners with major conference hotels in downtown locations, providing both meeting space and accommodation blocks. Vancouver’s 2026 venue sits in the city’s stadium district, walking distance from Gastown and the waterfront—typical of CNS’s preference for accessible urban centers with good transit connections.
Why the Location Changes Each Year
The rotating venue model serves multiple practical purposes. Different host cities allow the society to tap into regional research communities, particularly those at nearby universities. Boston’s neuroscience cluster, Toronto’s cognitive science programs, and Vancouver’s brain research institutes each bring local participants who might not travel cross-continent annually.
Conference venues require significant logistical infrastructure: ballrooms for 1,000+ poster presentations, multiple breakout rooms for parallel symposia, and exhibition space for research equipment vendors. Major hotel convention centers in large cities provide this capacity more reliably than fixed academic venues. The society can also negotiate better rates by distributing its business across multiple hotel chains rather than returning to the same property.
Geographically, the pattern reveals a practical North American focus. Travel visas, flight connections, and time zones matter when coordinating international attendance. A San Francisco-Toronto-Boston-Vancouver rotation keeps the conference within similar longitude bands, minimizing jet lag for attendees flying from Europe or Asia. The furthest distance between recent venues is roughly 2,800 miles—manageable for a long weekend trip.
Meeting Format and Venue Requirements
CNS annual meetings follow a consistent four-day structure regardless of location. Saturday through Tuesday programming includes invited symposia, contributed talks, multiple poster sessions, and three major award lectures. The 2024 Toronto meeting drew 1,400 participants, while promotional materials for 2026 expect over 1,500 attendees from 150+ institutions.
This attendance scale dictates venue selection. The society needs hotels with:
- Grand ballrooms accommodating 200+ attendees for keynote addresses
- Exhibition halls for 1,000 simultaneous poster presentations
- 5-8 breakout rooms for parallel symposia sessions
- Nearby hotels within the same complex or short walking distance
Vancouver’s JW Marriott Parq Vancouver offers the largest hotel ballroom space in the city, connected to a secondary hotel (the DOUGLAS) for overflow accommodation. The society also arranges budget options—Vancouver’s YWCA Hotel is seven minutes walking distance at student-friendly rates. This multi-tiered lodging approach appears at most venues, recognizing that graduate students and postdocs make up a significant portion of attendees.
The conference timing in March-April reflects academic calendar considerations. Most university teaching obligations ease during spring break periods, and researchers prefer submitting abstracts for spring meetings after analyzing fall semester data. However, the society acknowledges that no date perfectly avoids all conflicts with religious observances, other conferences, or teaching schedules.
Historical Context and Virtual Interruptions
Founded in 1994, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society has maintained its spring meeting tradition for over three decades. The society celebrated its 30th anniversary at the 2023 San Francisco meeting, marking years of consistent annual gatherings—with two notable exceptions.
The 2020 and 2021 meetings went fully virtual due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. These online-only conferences disrupted the traditional city rotation but allowed continued scientific exchange during travel lockdowns. The 2022 San Francisco meeting marked the society’s return to in-person events, though organizers added hybrid elements like virtual poster platforms to maintain accessibility for those unable to travel.
San Francisco hosted twice in succession (2022 and 2023), likely due to venue contracts established before pandemic disruptions. The pattern since then suggests the society prefers not repeating cities in consecutive years, spreading its annual impact across different metropolitan areas.
Planning Your Attendance
The society announces meeting locations 12-18 months in advance, giving researchers time to secure travel funding and submit abstracts. Early registration typically opens six months before the meeting, with hotel room blocks available as soon as reservations go live—often 8-10 months ahead.
Hotel rooms within the conference block sell out for popular venues. The 2026 Vancouver meeting offers three accommodation tiers: premium rooms at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver where sessions occur, mid-range options at the connected DOUGLAS hotel, and budget stays at the YWCA Hotel. Booking through official conference links ensures you’re within easy reach of morning sessions and evening poster receptions.
Abstract submission deadlines usually fall in October-November for spring meetings. The society accepts proposals for symposia (multi-talk themed sessions), individual talks, and posters. Graduate students and postdocs often present posters while established investigators lead symposia. Planning around these deadlines helps if you’re coordinating with collaborators at distant institutions.
North American Focus vs Global Attendance
While the society rotates exclusively among U.S. and Canadian cities, its membership and attendance remain international. More than 30 countries send participants to each annual meeting, with strong representation from European institutions, particularly from the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. The “cognitive neuroscience” label attracts researchers from psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and medicine—a truly interdisciplinary gathering.
This North American venue pattern differs from sister organizations. The Organization for Computational Neuroscience alternates between North America, Europe, and occasionally other continents. The Society for Neuroscience holds its massive annual meeting almost exclusively in U.S. cities but rotates through a wider geographic range including San Diego, Chicago, Washington DC, and occasionally ventures to sites like New Orleans.
CNS’s more limited rotation likely reflects its mid-size scale. At 1,400-1,500 attendees, it’s substantial but not mammoth like the 30,000+ person Society for Neuroscience gathering. This size works well for urban conference hotels without requiring convention center infrastructure. Expanding to European or Asian venues would introduce visa complications for U.S.-based members and potentially split the attendance.
What Makes a City Attractive for CNS Meetings
Examining the recent rotation reveals patterns in site selection. Cities that host CNS meetings share certain characteristics:
Strong Local Research Communities: Boston, Toronto, San Francisco, and Vancouver all house major universities with prominent neuroscience programs. Local attendance from graduate students and postdocs helps fill poster sessions and provides volunteers for conference operations.
International Airport Access: Direct flights matter for a four-day conference where attendees arrive Friday evening and depart Tuesday afternoon. All recent host cities serve as major international hubs with nonstop connections from Europe and Asia.
Urban Accessibility: CNS favors walkable downtown venues over airport hotel clusters or suburban conference centers. Attendees can explore the city between sessions, and local restaurants can absorb dinner crowds without requiring organized transportation.
Spring Weather Flexibility: March and April bring variable conditions to northern cities. Boston can deliver snow or sunshine; Vancouver typically offers mild rain. The society chooses venues with enclosed connections between hotels and meeting spaces, minimizing weather disruptions.
San Francisco’s repeat appearances (2022, 2023) and the upcoming Vancouver selection suggest west coast cities work particularly well for this schedule. Pacific time zone meetings allow East Coast and European attendees to adjust more easily than vice versa, and spring weather tends milder than in northeastern cities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does CNS ever meet outside North America?
The annual spring meeting has exclusively rotated among U.S. and Canadian cities throughout the society’s 30+ year history. While members come from dozens of countries, the conference venue pattern remains North American, likely for visa and logistical simplicity.
How far in advance should I book my hotel?
Conference hotel blocks typically open 8-10 months before the meeting and sell out for popular venues. If you’re certain of attending, booking when registration opens ensures you get a room within walking distance of sessions. Budget-tier options like Vancouver’s YWCA arrangement may have more availability but still benefit from early reservations.
Can I attend virtually if I can’t travel?
CNS experimented with virtual and hybrid formats during 2020-2022 but returned to fully in-person meetings starting in 2023. Some talks may be recorded for later access, but live virtual participation is not currently offered. The society’s focus on poster sessions and informal networking makes full virtual equivalence challenging.
What determines which city hosts each year?
The society doesn’t follow a published rotation formula. Decisions appear to balance geographic distribution, venue capacity, local research community strength, and practical factors like hotel costs and contract timing. The pattern suggests avoiding consecutive years in the same city while ensuring regular access points across different North American regions.
The Cognitive Neuroscience Society’s rotating venue model balances practical constraints with the goal of serving a geographically distributed research community. By moving among major North American cities annually, the organization maintains accessibility for its core membership while keeping meetings manageable in scale and logistics. Whether you’re planning your first attendance or tracking the rotation for regular participation, knowing that venues announce 12-18 months ahead gives you the lead time to make informed decisions about when your research and travel schedule align best with the conference location.
Sources:
- https://www.cogneurosociety.org/annual-meeting/
- https://www.cogneurosociety.org/exhibit/
- https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1070639
- https://www.cogneurosociety.org/cns-2024-press-room/
- https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/977283
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_Neuroscience_Society