The 2021 conference has been a standing agenda item on the IGeLU Steering Committee meetings and after much deliberation we have decided that the best way moving forward, under the current COVID-19 situation is to
- Cancel the 2021 physical conference
- Run the 2021 conference as a digital conference
We would like to thank the Det Kongelige Bibliotek (the Royal Danish Library), the local conference organising committee, for the hard work that they have undertaken to date. It is disappointing that we have had to cancel our 2021 physical conference in Copenhagen as is a great location.
The decision to hold a digital conference is based on
- The new emerging COVID-19 strain which appears to be more virulent
- Current COVID-19 infection rates
- Uncertainty on international travel requirements
- Increased travel expenses
- Institutional budgets impacted by the pandemic
- Logistics involved in holding a Hybrid Conference
- Reports of differing vaccine roll out schedules across different countries
We have learnt a lot from holding the 2020 Digital Conference and our experience from holding the 2020 Digital Conference means that we will be able to deliver a better 2021 Digital Conference experience. Developers’ Day will take place on Monday 23 August with the conference being held as planned from Tuesday 24 to Thursday 26 August. This year, our conference theme is: “Equity, Equality, Diversity — Rapid Change in a Diverse World“.
We are also looking at integrating our technology to make registration and access to the conference a lot easier.
In addition we are investigating options to deliver the conference using real-time subtitles in up to 10 other languages.
If you have any questions, please mail us at conference@igelu.org.
Conference website: https://conferences.igelu.org/conference2021 (Presentation Proposal, Registration, Programme)