2020 Annual Scientific Meeting – a free virtual conference

Dear Friends and Colleagues

I hope that you are all continuing to stay well and survive the additional pressures that many are under during the continuing Covid-19 outbreak and restrictions.

Following our update on the 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting last month, I am writing to confirm that at our most recent committee meeting we concluded that we really had no choice but to follow the path that many other organisations are taking in relation to conferences in the coming year.  We have therefore decided that it is too risky to continue to plan for an in-person event, but we are delighted to say that the September conference will proceed as a virtual conference.

We would like to thank Professor Carol Brayne and all of her colleagues in Cambridge again for all the work that they had put in to date on organising the conference. We are hoping that they may be able to add some ‘virtual’ experiences to the conference to still give the conference a distinct ‘Cambridge’ feel and to reflect the substantial amount of work that Carol and her colleagues had already committed.

We have rated all of the abstracts following our usual process and plan to publish the accepted peer-reviewed abstracts as usual (online rather than in hard copy this year).  If you submitted an abstract, you should be hearing from us very soon!  We really hope that people will still be able to present their work virtually and that we can all utilise our new-found or well-honed skills in virtual participation in meetings and discussion.  More details to follow in due course on formats for the papers, posters and plenaries!  If there’s anyone out there with first-hand experience of organising a conference virtually who wants to share suggestions for good practice, what works well etc., do feel free to get in touch!

With all good wishes and take care,

Kate Hunt
SSM President