ICAR Events Update

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