The Experience Is Here: AAOS 2025 Begins Now

The AAOS 2025 Annual Meeting, the world’s premier educational orthopaedics conference, kicks off today in beautiful San Diego with 5 full days of scientific sessions, expanded networking opportunities, hands-on workshops, and a sprawling Exhibit Hall that displays the latest in orthopaedic products and services. Since its last time in San Diego in 2021, the AAOS Annual Meeting has been reimagined, retooled, and reinvented to ensure “It’s The Experience!”

“San Diego is the perfect location for the 2025 Annual Meeting, with its idyllic setting and top-notch conference facilities that allow us to host the leading orthopaedic event,” said AAOS President Paul Tornetta III, MD, PhD, FAAOS. “Based on feedback from attendees, this year’s sessions will be shorter and more impactful, featuring the latest insights and newest technologies in orthopaedics. The next 5 days will showcase the foremost experts in the field and research from all specialties to give attendees an enriching experience that will help them transform how they practice.”

Do not forget to download the Annual Meeting Mobile App. With new features for 2025 such as PeerConnect, attendees can see who is attending and network with fellow colleagues before and during the event. The mobile app also provides artificial intelligence–driven session recommendations to help expand and personalize each attendee’s professional development. Attendees can browse the full, detailed program with advanced filtering to build a personalized agenda. Attendees can view interactive 3D maps and plan their time on the exhibit floor by exploring and starring the exhibits they want to visit.

Attendees can also add Instructional Course Lectures and Specialty Society Program tickets to their existing registration through the mobile app. This week only, save up to $400 (pricing varies by AAOS membership type) with the purchase of the 2025 Annual Meeting OnDemand. Go to aaos.OnDemand.org/SanDiego.

Registration hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 6:30 to 11:30 a.m. Friday. Attendees can pick up their badges by showing the QR code from their registration.

Educational sessions start today
The 2025 Annual Meeting brings the latest in orthopaedic education to the forefront, with educational sessions beginning today and running through Friday. Poster sessions open at 7 a.m. at OrthoLive in the Sails Pavilion.

The Exhibit Hall will open tomorrow with more than 600 industry exhibits featuring exclusive access to the latest technology, techniques, and tools to transform patient care. Attendees will see firsthand where orthopaedics is headed. New to the hall this year: a pickleball tournament, powered by the Association of Pickleball Players, and OrthoQuest, an interactive scavenger hunt—both offering exciting and engaging ways to connect.

Attendees can connect with industry experts through interactive education demonstrations and experiences during expanded Exhibit Hall hours. With 10 hours of dedicated exhibit time in the schedule, attendees will be able to explore groundbreaking research and innovative treatments.

“The Annual Meeting Committee has put together the best of the best to make the AAOS Annual Meeting the best orthopaedic educational event in the world, “said Matthew Provencher, MD, MBA, Capt. MC USNR (Ret.), FAAOS, chair of the AAOS Annual Meeting Oversight Committee. “I am incredibly proud of their work. We have a truly innovative program that includes OrthoDome®, which features 4K surgical education videos, as well as many others, including OrthoPitch, ICLs, symposia, and cutting-edge surgical demonstrations. This year’s Annual Meeting is truly the peak of orthopaedic education.”

Sharing Annual Meeting moments
At the 2025 Annual Meeting, moments become memories with an experience that goes beyond attending, offering a unique value that fulfills personal and professional needs while providing opportunities for growth and meaningful connections. Attendees are invited to share their experiences by using the hashtag #AAOS2025.

More to come
In its fourth year, OrthoDome will once again span 3 full days of the meeting, beginning Tuesday and offering sessions that cover every major orthopaedic subspecialty. In the OrthoDome, time stands still as orthopaedic leaders turn the entire room into a masterclass. Various learning formats will be available, including the immersive Innovation Theater, Bioskills Workshops, and more. Be sure to catch in-booth presentations throughout the Exhibit Hall, especially during dedicated exhibit hours and Happy Hour in the Hall.

The moments created during last year’s inaugural standing-room-only OrthoPitch event became memories with promising opportunities for the future. The 2025 technology competition will showcase novel and innovative orthopaedic products on Tuesday evening. Finalists will again face off in front of a panel of judges and the audience, presenting their products and fielding questions from the judges. This year’s OrthoPitch starts with cocktails at 5:30 p.m. and presentations beginning at 6 p.m.

Pick up the AAOS Now Daily Edition
Along with the mobile app, copies of the AAOS Now Daily Edition will be published each morning through Thursday. The publication features previews of upcoming events and coverage from the previous day. Copies are available in magazine bins spread throughout the convention center in high-traffic areas.

Molly Todd Rudy is a freelance writer for AAOS Now.