Congrès SFD · 2027

Agoris analysis · updated September 2026

Key takeaways

• The Congrès SFD is the annual congress of the Société Francophone du Diabète: four days of scientific sessions devoted to diabetology, alongside an exhibition where laboratories, equipment manufacturers and service providers rent stands. It is a learned society congress, not a commercial trade show in the strict sense: the exhibition runs to the rhythm of the scientific programme.
• Next edition: from Tuesday 30 March to Friday 2 April 2027, at Lille Grand Palais. The 2027 programme has not yet been published.
• Organiser: the Société Francophone du Diabète (SFD), an association under the 1901 law. Operational management, logistics and the sale of stands and partnerships are handled by its delegated organiser, the Colloquium agency.
• Annual frequency, with a different city each year. Lille hosts the congress for the third time at the Grand Palais, after 2010 and 2017.
• Results from the 2026 edition in Lyon, published on the congress website: 5,149 registered, 3,440 people on site, 76 sessions, 15 industry symposia and 501 abstracts.
• The congress brings together the SFD, SFD Paramédical and Aide aux Jeunes Diabétiques (AJD): for 2027, the published rates include paramedical days, AJD days and a half-day devoted to therapeutic education on the morning of Friday 2 April.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

The 2027 partners area is aimed at three families of exhibitors: laboratories, equipment manufacturers and service providers. The congress's scientific focus, which gives significant space to technological innovation and e-health, explains this openness well beyond medicines.

The stand is only one form of presence. On its partners page, the SFD describes the formats sold by Colloquium: stand rental on the exhibition floor, industry sessions as a breakfast, lunch debate or evening symposium, presence in the official app, hospitality suites and sponsorship of materials. Exclusive symposia are booked directly with the SFD Bureau.

For young companies, the congress website announces an Espace Startup for 2027, presented as a location at the heart of the exhibition for innovative companies in diabetes or health. A "Village Start-up" already featured among the partners of the 2026 edition.

Notable exhibitors

The "Our partners in 2026" page on the congress website lists around fifty names under industry partners, including Abbott France, AstraZeneca, Boehringer, Dexcom, Embecta, Glooko, Insulet, Lilly France, Medtrum, Menarini, MiniMed, Novo Nordisk, Roche Diabetes Care, Sandoz, Sanofi Industrie and Tandem Diabetes France. This is the list for the 2026 edition in Lyon: the 2027 partners have not yet been published.

The same page lists the associations present in 2026, including AJD, CERITD, Diabaide and the Enfance Adolescence et Diabète association. As an older reference point, the SFD website recorded 49 industry partners in 2017, 55 in 2018 and 58 in 2019, associations excluded.

Visitor quality

The congress website defines its target audience as: hospital doctors, hospital-university doctors, private practitioners and institutional researchers. The 2027 partners area promises exhibitors scientists, academic researchers and clinicians, opinion leaders and prescribers, institutional figures and specialist press journalists.

The base of this audience is the SFD itself, which states it brings together around 1,200 specialist doctors and researchers and 300 paramedical professionals (nurses, dietitians, podiatrists). The congress far exceeds this: 5,149 registered in 2026, and 3,440 on site according to the published count. The gap between the two figures matters to an exhibitor: it is the second figure that measures actual footfall in the aisles.

Programme & community

Conference programme

The congress's stated aim is to cover all aspects of modern diabetology, from fundamentals to clinical practice, with significant space given to therapeutic and technological innovation and e-health. The 2026 edition counted 76 sessions and 15 industry symposia.

The 2027 programme will be published later. The scientific calendar, however, is known: the call for abstracts has been open since 1 September 2026, with a deadline of 4 November 2026 with no extension possible, and author notification from 15 to 28 December 2026. Four formats are offered: oral presentation, displayed and discussed poster, displayed poster, and non-displayed poster.

In 2026, replays were offered for all sessions except oral presentations and certain industry sessions, and remained accessible for a month after the congress. For a partner, this is a point worth negotiating: a filmed industry session keeps working after the stand has been dismantled.

Prizes and research grants

Each year, the SFD awards its research grants and scholarships at the congress, funded from its own resources or in partnership with pharmaceutical and equipment manufacturers, after project selection by its Scientific Council. It also awards named prizes, including the Prix Roger Assan, the Prix Auguste Loubatières and the Prix Ronan Roussel.

For an industry partner, this mechanism is another way in besides the stand: supporting a research grant links the company's name to an official moment of the congress, under the scientific oversight of the learned society.

Community & networks

The SFD maintains relationships with patient associations, notably the Fédération Française des Diabétiques and AJD, with the discipline's professional organisations, and with other learned societies, including the Société Française d'Endocrinologie, the Société Française de Cardiologie and the Société Française de Gériatrie et Gérontologie. It is a member of the Conseil National Professionnel Endocrinologie, Diabète et Maladies Métaboliques.

Each edition produces a series of filmed interviews and round tables, published in the SFD's video library and reserved for its members.

Press relations for the congress are handled by the PRPA agency.

On site: what you need to know

The 2027 congress is held at Lille Grand Palais, 1 boulevard des Cités Unies, in central Lille. The venue states it is five minutes' walk from the city centre's two stations: Lille Flandres, served by TER regional trains and direct TGV high-speed trains from Paris and Roissy airport, and Lille Europe, served by Eurostar to London, Brussels and Amsterdam. Paris is an hour away by TGV.

By metro, the Mairie de Lille and Lille Grand Palais stations, on line 2, are 400 metres away; bus route 18 stops at Grand Palais. A V'Lille bike-share station is set up in front of the building. By car, from the A1, A27 or A23, take exit 2 then lane 2A towards Lille Grand Palais; from the A25, exit 1 then lane 2A. The venue also offers a carpooling platform and Ilévia park-and-ride car parks.

Opening hours for the 2027 edition have not yet been published. The organiser offers a dedicated accommodation service, whose contact details are on the congress contact page.

How much it costs to exhibit

The 2027 registration rates are published: for the whole congress, €300 for an SFD member and €500 for a non-member until 31 January 2027, then €350 and €550 from 1 February to 19 March 2027, and €400 and €600 on site. Registrations were not yet open at the time of writing.

Preparing your visit

For the exhibitor

• Book through the 2027 congress partners area, managed by Colloquium: stand, sessions and sponsorship all go through the same form.
• Plan ahead based on the size you are after: the booking calendar gives priority to larger stands.
• Think beyond the stand: at a learned society congress, an industry session or support for a research grant reach the audience differently from the exhibition.
• Read the SFD's code of ethics on its relationships with private partners: it governs relations with industry and refers to the framework of the law of 29 December 2011 on transparency of links between the health industry and health professionals.
• For a young company, look into the Espace Startup announced for 2027.

For the decision-making visitor

• Watch for the publication of the 2027 programme to identify useful sessions and symposia before walking the exhibition floor.
• Register before 31 January 2027: the rate then rises in stages up to the on-site rate.
• For a researcher or clinician, the call for abstracts closes on 4 November 2026, with no extension.
• Make the most of Lille's location: the stations are a few minutes from the Grand Palais, which makes a same-day return trip possible from Paris or Brussels.

CSR policy & initiatives

The congress website does not publish a CSR section, a carbon assessment, or an ISO 20121 certification for the event. Colloquium, the delegated organiser, does not publish a group CSR programme on its website either. On the governance side, the SFD has a code of ethics governing its relationships with private partners, and it notes that its members' conflicts of interest with industry can be checked on the public database transparence.sante.gouv.fr. It is also Qualiopi-certified for its training activities, which relates to teaching quality rather than the environment.

The most documented commitment is the venue's. Lille Grand Palais displays a management system certified to ISO 20121, the standard for responsible events, and ISO 9001. It provides organisers with waste-sorting facilities, carpooling, inclusive mobility and audience protection measures. The Métropole Européenne de Lille has been labelled a Destination Innovante Durable since January 2024, an initiative the venue states it takes part in.

The choice of Lille also plays a part: the two stations, a few minutes' walk away, make it possible to arrive by train from Paris, Brussels or London. No measurement of the congress's own footprint is published, however.

How the congress has evolved

Trajectory analysis

The congress went through the pandemic without interruption, but not without disruption: the 2020 Brussels edition was moved from March to September and held in a fully virtual format, as was the 2021 Strasbourg edition. The return to an in-person format took place in Nice in 2022, and the event has since settled back into its usual late-March or early-April slot, from Tuesday to Friday.

The published figures show an audience that now exceeds its pre-2020 level, with one methodological caveat: the SFD used to count congress attendees and exhibitors, whereas the congress website now shows registrations and, separately, on-site attendance. The 5,149 registered in 2026 and the 4,633 participants in 2019 therefore do not measure the same thing. The cleanest comparison is the most recent one: between 2025 and 2026, registrations rose from 5,006 to 5,149 and on-site attendance from 3,314 to 3,440, an increase the organiser itself highlighted after the Lyon edition.

Touring is a structural feature. The congress changes city every year and regularly leaves France: Brussels in 2008 and 2020, Geneva in 2011. This French-speaking dimension sets the SFD apart from a strictly national society. For an exhibitor, the consequence is practical: the local supplier, access and logistics change with every edition, and Lille 2027 will not look like Lyon 2026.

The return to Lille offers a rare point of comparison, at the same venue: 4,438 congress attendees and exhibitors and 49 industry partners in 2017. Dates for the 2028 edition had not been announced at the time of writing.

All data not attributed to a source comes from the organiser's website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (congres-sfd.com).