Dear AChemS Membership,
The AChemS Executive committee met last week and has decided that AChemS 2021 will be entirely virtual.
We discussed the possibilities of an exclusively in-person meeting, a hybrid format and the option of a fully on-line conference. Given the ongoing uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial and logistical realities in dealing with it, we opted for the last choice.
To be entirely transparent with you all, the situation is this:
A hybrid meeting is simply not possible due to cost. It significantly increases the on-the-ground costs of actually running the meeting including doubling the AV expenses in order to support both the virtual and in-person formats. Further, the option of virtual attendance would likely bring in-person attendance down substantially, and AChemS would not meet the contractual minimum room reservations triggering a series of additional costs and penalties that would endanger the financial health of the society, possibly so much so that with the added costs of the virtual meeting, it would bankrupt AChemS.
An entirely in-person meeting, we felt, would also likely be sorely under-attended, and even with the reduced hosting costs, would get us to the same financially damaging situation.
Thus the virtual meeting has become the only choice going forward, although not without its own costs. First, rather than cancel the in-person meeting entirely this year, the Hyatt at Bonita Springs has offered to allow us to move our commitment this year to 2025 for a fee of $20K. Currently we are contracted to host AChemS 2022, 2023 and 2024 at this Hyatt, and this move would add 2025 to our contract. We were and are mindful of prior feedback and discussion at the Diversity Forum at ISOT this summer where our attendees of color had felt uncomfortable and even unwelcome at this venue, thus many of us felt compelled to begin work to seek out a new venue. However, simply breaking our contract for 2021 would entail paying $300,000+ and again, is simply too much for the society to bear. The current plan is to identify a more appropriate venue for 2026 and beyond.
I am sorry that we won’t meet again this spring, as we have done for so many years. But now that the format of the meeting is resolved, and given the success of virtual ISOT this summer (over 1700 attendees!!), I am convinced we can develop a cutting edge scientific program, learn from our experience with ISOT, and innovate with new virtual tools and formats, to host a great, inclusive conference in April!!
I hope you will all attend and importantly, work with our Program Chair Max Fletcher and his Program Committee to help create a dynamic, interactive and inclusive program.
All the best, and stay well.
Linda Barlow, PhD
AChemS President
