The COVID-19 pandemic and associated travel restrictions (both at a national and an institutional level) have made it likely that a face-to-face Connect conference in October would not be financially viable, let alone well-advised. The Steering Group, the planning team at UC Santa Barbara and that at the University of Notre Dame (who have offered to host in 2021) jointly decided that the f2f conference should be cancelled. It is hoped that UCSB can do this without significant financial penalty from the hotel where SC2020 was to be held. If that penalty can be avoided the plan is that Notre Dame will host a conference in 2021 and UCSB in 2022. In announcing the cancellation, a commitment was made to mount some sort of virtual event to replace the f2f one. The format for that is undecided. RG expressed the hope that the members of the Program Committee would be willing to plan for this virtual event.
Ideas for SC2020 format
A brief discussion took place about a possible format. One important aspect of a physical Connect conference is the 'business' that gets done in breaks and in breakout sessions; it is hoped that a virtual conference can capture that experience.
It was agreed that we should canvass ideas for a format during the virtual Partner Meeting being held on 27/28 April and during Virtual Connect on 14/15 May as well as in more general communications.
RG will produce a 'scratchpad document to gather thoughts and ideas about a format. It can be found here.
Date of next call
Thursday 23rd April 8:00am PT, 11:00am ET; 4:00pm UK - to look over the scratchpad and decide what to present during Virtual Connect
Thursday 7th May 8:00am PT, 11:00am ET; 4:00pm UK - an option if the first call requires more work.
