Important Notice re: IASIL Conference, Lodz 2020 and Covid-19 Travel Plans & Contingency

Dear Conference Participants,

First of all let us thank you again for submitting your paper proposals for 2020 IASIL conference in Lodz. We are very happy to be behind its organization and are really looking forward to July. We would like to make an announcement regarding the current situation with the global pandemic of Coronavirus – Covid-19. Under the circumstances there are a few very important points that we need to take into consideration for the conference to happen.

Our working assumption is that by the end of July the pandemic will have been over and travel bans as well as most of other restrictions lifted. Naturally, if that does not happen we will follow general regulations and act accordingly, perhaps finding alternative dates for the conference.

Hoping that these drastic measures will not be necessary, we suggest you wait with any decisions of withdrawal or cancellation. Please, remember that the conference can happen only if all of the participants pay their fee and come. This is absolutely vital for us to maintain the level of attendance as it is at the moment. We have decided – having consulted the IASIL Chair – that we are going to wait with our financial commitments (i.e. booking flights for our writers and key-note speakers) till April 20.

The University of Lodz is closed until April 14 with all teaching suspended. We hope that after this date things will clear up and we will be able to make sensible decisions about the conference. If you could refrain from cancelling your participation until that date, it would give us a better judgement about the possibility of going ahead with further organization. The conference fee is fully refundable, so those who have already paid or intend on doing so in the coming weeks should not worry about losing money, if we are forced to cancel the conference.  

 Let us stress again that apart from official regulations the future of IASIL 2020 is very much in the hands of current participants. Please, follow our suggestions carefully and do not make any rush decisions.

We will, as we say above, make a decision about the conference on 20th April and issue an announcement then.

Best regards,

IASIL 2020 Organising Committee

You can see this notice on the conference website here: http://iasil.uni.lodz.pl/covid-19/