23.07.2020
News on COVID-19 pandemic related changes of upcoming ICAR Events. Click for details...
Dear ICAR Members and ICAR Delegates
Dear ICAR Partners and Exhibitors
Dear ICAR Candidate Member Organizations
Dear ICAR Community
End of March this year, the registration for ICAR 2020 Greece was
just about ready to be launched, when the COVID-19 pandemic started
to change everything around the globe. Since then our Greek Hosts
(HRT), their PCO (Professional Congress Organizer) Erasmus, the
Venue and the ICAR Executive Board have been in close contact to
monitor the dynamic developments and seek for possible solutions.
It then became obvious, that the impact of the global pandemic
(social distancing, meeting and travel restrictions, lack of flight
availability, quarantine, etc.) will last and go beyond 2020.
Thanks to the flexibility of all involved, high cancellation
penalties could be avoided and the remaining uncovered cost kept
limited. The decisions made take all of this into account. Now we
would like to inform you about them in detail:
1) The physical ICAR 2020 Greece "in person" congress is
postponed to October 19-24, 2021 (Tue-Sun). Venue
unchanged in Thessaloniki, hosted by HRT.
2) The physical ICAR 2021 Austria "in person" congress is
postponed to October 2026 (act of solidarity by our
Austrian Hosts ÖBRD to move to their next jubilee, as their
governmental and sponsoring event support is directly linked to an
anniversary).
3) The physical ICAR 2022 Switzerland "in person" congress
remains scheduled for October 11-16, 2022 in the Lake
Geneva Region in Western Switzerland.
4) The physical ICAR 2023 Italy "in person" congress
remains scheduled for October 2023 in South Tyrol,
Italy.
5) The ICAR Assembly of Delegates 2020 is
cancelled. The 2019 and 2020 financial years are declared
to be a long-term year. The double year does not count for the
years of membership on the ICAR Executive Board. All current ICAR
Executive Board Members and ICAR Auditors remain in office until
October 2021, when the next ICAR Assembly of Delegates will take
place. The ICAR Executive Board will then report on the annual
accounts, the balance sheet and the auditors report with discharge.
New elections (2020 would have been an ordinary election year) and
the admission of new members type A, B1/B2 and D (requiring the
approval of the ICAR Assembly of Delegates) are postponed to
October 2021.
6) On October 10/11 and 17/18, 2020 a virtual ICAR event
is planned to take place, 17:00-20:00 CEST on each of the 4
week-end days. The Technical Committee (all Commission
Presidents) under the the direction of Gebhard Barbisch is
commissioned to prepare this virtual event, to draw up a budget (to
be approved by the ICAR Executive Board) for it and to prepare the
technical or IT issues/requirements. A registration for the event
will be set up (no fees for attendees). Presentations shall be of
max. 20 minutes, followed by 5 minutes discussion and a 5 minutes
buffer for the speaker's change. No simultaneous sessions. All
presentations will be pre-recorded and conducted in English,
without the ICAR Interpreters. The commission delegates/members
will soon get more information directly by their commission.
Milestones/deadlines are set as follows:
- Call for papers/proposals until August 15, 2020.
- Best suitable presentations selected by the Technical Committee
Work Group until September 1, 2020.
- Final virtual event schedule available until September 15,
2020.
It is planned that Topograph Media (our ICAR Media
Production Partner) will produce a video showing all ICAR Partners
with their contact information. This video will be shown
at the beginning of each virtual event day. In addition,
every event day will conclude with 15 minutes of new product
presentations of our ICAR Partners (max. 5 minutes per
ICAR Partner). Topograph Media will directly approach our ICAR
Partners (after the budget has been drawn up and approved by the
ICAR Executive Board).
The ICAR Website (see News,
Dates,
Congress)
and the ICAR Association App now both reflect all these decisions
and changes.
Thank you all for your support and understanding. We count on your
active and valuable contribution. May you, your family members and
your fellow friends stay healthy in these challenging times. With
very kind regards
The ICAR Executive Board
Links
ICAR 2020 Virtual Event / Call for Papers
ICAR 2020 Virtual Event Website