Dear ICHNIA Folks!
After know about your perceptions regarding ICHNIA 2020 schedule and format as initially proposed, the Organizing Team decided to postpone the 5th International Congress on Ichnology to 2022.
The poll results showed that almost 70% of the potential participants didn't feel confident to travel to Brazil in October 2020, nearly 80% prefer that ICHNIA 2020 remains as an in-person meeting and that 41% would be convinced to attend the conference in 2021 and 35% prefer to come in 2022. We analyzed these results and considered it better to postpone ICHNIA to the late April/May 2022 (fall season in Southern Hemisphere). Our reasons take in account: (i) the existence of two ichnological meetings scheduled for 2021 (IIW and SLIC); (ii) the fact that many relevant meetings in which part of the public that attends ICHNIA also participate was delayed for 2021 (so we will have lots of meetings occurring this year), and (iii) that, while a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 virus doesn't exist, we cannot provide a safe environment for our participants, due to the way that Brazil is dealing with this pandemic.
The other reasons that guided us to consider late April/May 2022 as the new potential date for ICHNIA are:
- tourism high season ends after Easter; it will be easier to negotiate the best prices for accommodation and general travel costs for field trips, and
- temperatures are still warm at this period, and days are not too short for field trips in the southern part of Brazil, where the congress potentially will occur
- to keep the potential new schedule for ICHNIA as close as possible to the original one to not impact ICHNIA 2024 calendar, when ICHNIA celebrates 20 years.
This decision is also supported by the International Ichnological Association (IIA) Board of Directors.
Finally, it is crucial to let you know that we cannot guarantee that the congress venue will remain the same. We will do our best to keep everything as initially proposed. However, this pandemic will strongly affect the economy in Brazil, and tourism infrastructure will suffer most. Maybe the Canto da Ilha Hotel cannot afford the risk to be committed with us once more; maybe they will even not exist anymore after the Covid-19. Thus, you must be aware that it will affect our budget and, as a consequence, registration, field trips, and other congress fees for participants.
ICHNIA 2020 Treasury Team will contact those that had made their registration already to explain about reimbursement as soon as we have these details.
We thank once more to those that answered the poll and helped us to make this decision the best one for our ichnocommunity. We only can practice One Ichnology! if we stay together and safe.
Best wishes,
Renata G. Netto
ICHNIA 2020 Organizing Team