TL;DR — The 2026 AANA Annual Meeting — the Arthroscopy Association of North America’s flagship event — runs May 14–16, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. Expect roughly 2,000 orthopedic surgeons focused on arthroscopy and minimally invasive joint surgery, a tight technique-heavy program, and an exhibit hall that punches above its weight for sports medicine, biologics, and arthroscopy device buyers. Below: dates, venue logistics, hotel and travel realities, the clinical topics dominating the 2026 program, and how exhibitors should plan their three days.
AANA 2026 Location and Dates at a Glance
The 2026 AANA Annual Meeting is in Phoenix, Arizona, hosted at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in north Phoenix. Meeting dates are May 14 through May 16, 2026 (Thursday through Saturday), with pre-meeting committee work and faculty sessions starting earlier in the week. Unlike larger orthopedic shows, AANA runs as a single-venue resort meeting — the scientific program, exhibit hall, faculty events, and the bulk of attendee hotel rooms are all on one property.
Quick facts for planning:
- City: Phoenix, Arizona
- Venue: JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa, 5350 East Marriott Drive, Phoenix, AZ
- Dates: May 14–16, 2026 (Thursday through Saturday)
- Format: In-person, single-venue resort meeting
- Audience: Orthopedic surgeons (arthroscopy and sports medicine focus), fellows, allied health, industry
- Scale: Approximately 2,000 attendees plus a focused arthroscopy exhibit hall
- Registration: Through aana.org
The resort location matters more here than at most large convention shows. AANA attendees do not scatter across a downtown after sessions — they stay on property, eat on property, and run into faculty and industry colleagues at the pools, restaurants, and faculty events. If you are exhibiting, that compressed footprint is genuinely advantageous: a serendipitous lobby conversation with a surgeon you have been chasing for six months is more likely at AANA than at AAOS.
For a deeper breakdown of booth pricing, sponsorship tiers, and audience data, see our AANA 2026 conference profile.
The JW Marriott Desert Ridge: What Exhibitors and Attendees Should Know
The JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge is a 950-room resort property in north Phoenix with substantial conference space — large enough to absorb AANA’s scientific program, surgical demonstrations, and exhibit hall comfortably, while keeping the meeting on a single contiguous campus. The property has been a recurring AANA host because it solves the meeting’s core logistical requirement: a self-contained venue where 2,000 surgeons can do three days of dense technique content without bus rides or downtown commute friction.
Three practical points for exhibitors:
- Resort exhibit halls run differently than convention centers. The space is more intimate, ceilings are lower, and attendee traffic is more concentrated around the session schedule. Booth designs that work at a 350,000-square-foot convention hall can feel oversized here. Lean toward a focused, conversation-friendly layout rather than a maximalist display.
- Surgical demonstrations are the real draw. AANA’s program leans heavily on live and recorded surgical technique sessions. If your product has a meaningful arthroscopic technique story — suture anchor, repair augmentation, biologic delivery — coordinate with AANA early about technique session integration. That kind of programming credibility is worth more than a larger booth footprint.
- Faculty access is unusually open. Because everyone stays on property, casual access to faculty surgeons is high. Plan one or two informal sponsored events (a faculty breakfast, a small dinner with five to eight surgeons) rather than only relying on booth traffic.
Hotels, Travel, and Phoenix in May
AANA blocks rooms at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge itself and at adjacent overflow properties — the AANA hotel block is the only way to be on-campus and is worth booking the day it opens. Phoenix in mid-May is the shoulder of the summer heat curve: daytime highs in the upper 90s to low 100s, dry, with cool evenings. The property is built for it (shaded walkways, indoor connectors between conference space, pool decks designed for evening events), and the meeting’s indoor schedule means heat is more a context than a daily problem.
Travel logistics:
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) is roughly 25 minutes from the resort outside of rush hour. Direct flights from most major U.S. metros are plentiful and competitive.
- Rideshare or rental car are the practical options — the resort is north of central Phoenix, not walkable to anything off-campus.
- Arrival pattern. Most attendees fly in Wednesday evening or Thursday morning and depart Saturday afternoon or Sunday. Pre-show meeting opportunities are concentrated Wednesday evening and Thursday morning before the first session.
If you are scheduling industry-supported dinners, the highest-yield window is Thursday or Friday evening on-property or at one of the upscale dining options within a short rideshare. Avoid Saturday evening — surgeons are flying out early Sunday and decline late-week dinner invitations more often than not.
Five Clinical Topics Driving the 2026 AANA Program
AANA programming is one of the cleaner barometers of where North American arthroscopy is moving technically and commercially. Five themes are dominating the 2026 conversation, on stage and in hallway conversation.
1. Rotator Cuff Repair Techniques and Augmentation
Rotator cuff repair remains the single highest-volume arthroscopic procedure topic at AANA. The 2026 conversation centers on retear reduction in massive and revision tears: double-row constructs, knotless anchors, biologic augmentation with patches and scaffolds, and superior capsule reconstruction versus reverse shoulder arthroplasty for irreparable tears. Vendors with augmentation patches, dermal allograft constructs, and next-generation suture anchor systems should expect engaged exhibit-hall conversations. For deeper marketing context, see our shoulder arthroscopy device marketing guide.
2. ACL Reconstruction: Quad Tendon, LET, and Revision
ACL reconstruction at AANA 2026 reflects the field’s ongoing shift: quadriceps tendon autograft continues to gain share against patellar tendon and hamstring, lateral extra-articular tenodesis (LET) and anterolateral ligament reconstruction are now standard adjuncts in high-risk patients, and revision ACL programming is unusually robust. Expect technique sessions on graft selection by patient phenotype, tunnel positioning, internal bracing, and the growing role of biologic augmentation. Device companies in graft preparation, fixation, and internal brace systems should plan booth conversations around these specific decision points rather than generic ACL messaging.
3. Hip Arthroscopy and Labral Repair
Hip arthroscopy — femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) correction, labral repair, capsular management — is a mature and still-growing program track at AANA. The 2026 questions are increasingly about long-term outcomes, capsular closure protocols, when to repair versus reconstruct the labrum, and patient selection in the borderline dysplasia population. Hip arthroscopy device vendors (anchor systems, capsular repair, traction tables) get a disproportionately attentive audience at AANA relative to broader orthopedic meetings.
4. Orthobiologics: PRP, BMAC, and Allograft Constructs
Orthobiologics has moved from speculative to standard-of-care adjunct across multiple arthroscopic procedures: rotator cuff augmentation, ACL graft augmentation, meniscal repair, cartilage restoration, and intra-articular injection therapy. AANA 2026 programming reflects the maturation — sessions are increasingly about evidence quality, reimbursement reality, and which constructs are worth the case-cost premium rather than “does biologics work?” framing. For broader market context, see our orthobiologics marketing analysis and the sports medicine biologics marketing guide.
5. Same-Day Discharge and the Outpatient Surgery Center Economy
Shoulder and knee arthroscopy have moved decisively into the outpatient surgery center setting, and 2026 programming reflects the operational realities: anesthetic protocols enabling same-day discharge, postoperative pain management without opioid reliance, surgery center economics versus hospital outpatient rates, and the device procurement implications of working in an ASC versus a hospital. Vendors who frame products around ASC case-cost rather than hospital list price are speaking the language of the audience.
Who Should Attend AANA 2026
AANA is the most subspecialty-focused arthroscopy meeting in North America. It is engineered for the orthopedic surgeon whose practice is meaningfully arthroscopic: sports medicine fellowship-trained surgeons, shoulder and elbow specialists, hip preservation surgeons, and general orthopedists with substantial arthroscopic volume. The program depth on technique rivals or exceeds the arthroscopy track at AAOS, in a fraction of the meeting size.
Sports medicine fellows should attend during fellowship. AANA dedicates programming, mentorship, and reduced rates to fellows, and the technique density compresses what would otherwise be a year of disparate conference exposure into three days.
For industry, the audience is unusually clean: nearly every attendee is a current or imminent procurement decision-maker for arthroscopic equipment, suture anchors, biologics, capital equipment, and ASC infrastructure. The dollar-per-qualified-conversation math at AANA is among the best in orthopedic conferences, particularly for sports medicine and arthroscopy-focused vendors. For the broader vendor calculus, see our orthopedic implant marketing analysis and the orthopedic surgical instruments marketing guide.
If You’re Exhibiting at AANA 2026
Industry attendance at AANA is dense and consequential, but the playbook differs from larger conventions. The exhibit hall is smaller and more concentrated, the audience is more homogeneously decision-capable, and the resort venue creates more high-quality informal contact than a downtown convention center. The vendors who win Phoenix do most of their selling before they arrive — booking 30 to 60 pre-show meetings with target surgeons and ASC medical directors, leading booth conversations with technique evidence and case-cost data rather than generic mechanism-of-action, and protecting calendar slots for substantive faculty dinners.
For the full vendor playbook — booth strategy, pre-show outreach cadence, ROI math, and post-show follow-up — see our conference marketing service and the medical conference marketing ROI framework. The pre-conference email campaigns guide covers the outreach cadence that actually books surgeon meetings, and the booth design guide covers what actually drives qualified traffic in a resort exhibit hall.
How to Plan Your Three Days in Phoenix
- Book the AANA hotel block immediately. The JW Marriott Desert Ridge fills its AANA inventory fast, and on-campus housing is a meaningful productivity advantage at this meeting.
- Register at the early-bird window. Member, fellow, allied health, and group rates all have early-bird pricing. Group registration is real per-seat savings if your group sends three or more.
- Pre-select sessions in the meeting app. Shoulder, ACL, hip, and biologics sessions overlap. Build your schedule before you arrive rather than triaging at the desk.
- Block exhibit hall time deliberately. Two focused 60- to 90-minute passes beat five hurried 15-minute drop-ins. Identify 8–15 booths that match your evaluation pipeline.
- Use the resort layout to your advantage. Lobby, restaurant, and pool-area conversations are part of the meeting at AANA in a way they are not at downtown convention shows. Be visible and approachable, not buried in your room.
- Book one substantive dinner. A four- to six-person surgeon dinner with a vendor whose product you are seriously evaluating is worth more than ten quick booth visits.
- Plan an early Sunday departure. Saturday evening is dead at AANA — surgeons are flying home early Sunday. Schedule your last meaningful conversations for Saturday afternoon.
The Bottom Line
AANA 2026 in Phoenix is a tight, technique-rich three days at a moment when arthroscopy is unusually active — rotator cuff augmentation, ACL revision, hip arthroscopy maturity, orthobiologics integration, and the ASC migration are all moving fast enough that a single annual meeting can materially shape an arthroscopy practice through 2027. The JW Marriott Desert Ridge makes the logistics painless; the single-venue format makes faculty and industry access easy in a way few larger meetings can match. Build your schedule with intent, treat the resort layout as a feature rather than a constraint, and AANA pays the trip back.