ANNOUNCEMENT: ICAM 2022

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Over  the past couple of weeks, the Organising Committee of the ICAM 2020 have been considering the viability of the postponement to 2021.

A number of considerations were discussed by the Organising Committee including the following:

• The pandemic continues to be a major threat across Europe and beyond.
• It is unlikely that life will have returned to normal by September of 2021.
• Despite the development of vaccines, there will be a period of time before they are deployed sufficiently to convey herd immunity to the general population.
• Recovery of the Aviation industry and international travel is unlikely to be by September 2021.
• Making a "go, no-go" decision for ICAM 2021 would be required by March 2021 at the latest.
• If we choose to run with 2021 and postpone again, we would lose our deposits whereas deferring to 2022 incurs no extra costs.
• Deferring to 2022 realigns the event with the regular cycle of ECAMs and ICASMs. We will no longer be out of sync.
• Deferring to 2022 allows the new Conferencing company to establish itself and prepare efficiently for the Congress.
• The concept of the ICAM was to bring together members of all four organisations to convene in a physical location and share the experience. Holding a diluted meeting with social distance does not meet with the philosophy of the Congress.
• A virtual meeting was proposed by the Academy in September 2021 which would be virtual and would act as a "taster" for the ICAM 2022 with four sessions presented by each of the four organisations and expressing their own unique character over a two day period using webinars. The Organising Committee supported the proposal and will develop the concept together.