The EUDEC Conference 2020 should have been held 2nd to 8th of August in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Due to the corona crisis, this conference is postponed, the new dates are not known yet!
Here is the letter from the organisation team (25 June 2020):
Dear friends,
with huge sadness we announce that this year we are not organizing EUDEC Conference 2020 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
We think we waited enough with hope situation to change.
Current situation is following:
fear for health and safety – even with open borders, a lot of people are being afraid, being more careful, acting more safe and preferring not to travel (two of our key speakers cancelled participation for that reason)
closed borders and travel difficulties
some countries have completely closed borders and travelling and coming to the conference is not possible for all the people there, so basically even if they want – they cannot participate
a lot of countries have cancelled or limited flights and travelling becomes much more challenging
restrictions from Bulgaria – some countries still cannot enter Bulgaria without 14-day quarantine period, which automatically means that if we organize it, people from these countries will be deprived opportunity to join, even if they want to and have possibility to do that
restrictions from other countries to Bulgaria – some counties are cancelling their flights to Bulgaria due to increasing numbers of infected last days and more are expected to do so in the following weeks
money issues – struggle with finances – some people and schools that were planning to come, wrote to us that they are struggling financially, they will focus on surviving and won’t be able to join because of that
people cancelling participation
very uncertain and dynamic situation with a lot of unknowns
We were so enthusiastic and passionate to do it, we are planning this from two years since 2018 Conference in Crete.
We are so passionate about it that our hope was not dying, even in the face of the common sense (not fear, just common sense – we are neither afraid from doing it, nor from working hard for 1 month to make it happen).
But common sense speaks loudly and clearly in our faces now.
We think that even if we try to do it, it won’t be our conference.
We really hope we have the opportunity to organize it in another moment when possible.
Bulgarian team
(Magi, Tsveti, Kari, Megi, Ivan)