We are writing again, as promised, to discuss plans for our upcoming 2021 WEMPEC Annual Review Meeting scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, May 11-12. After careful deliberations involving all of the WEMPEC faculty, we have decided that the continuing pandemic will not permit us to safely hold this upcoming meeting in person. Since this is WEMPEC’s 40th anniversary year, the decision caused a special quandary for us given our firm commitment to celebrate this special milestone at a large-scale in-person event.
In the face of several bad options, we have decided to postpone the celebratory events associated with WEMPEC’s 40th anniversary by a year until our 2022 Annual Meeting. This year’s Annual Meeting will be held as a virtual on-line event, adopting a format much like last year’s 2020 Annual Meeting combined with some new innovations designed to encourage more small-group interactions among all of the meeting participants including sponsors, faculty, students, and staff.
We are keenly disappointed about delaying this special celebration of our 40th anniversary, but we hope you can appreciate the unique combination of factors that ultimately forced us to change plans. With this decision behind us, we are now busy implementing plans to make the upcoming Annual Meeting on May 11-12 the best one ever!
Please mark your calendars and watch for more information including an agenda and registration details in upcoming announcements!
Sincerely,
Prof. Thomas M. Jahns and Prof. Giri Venkataramanan