The International Numismatic Council (INC) and the Congress Organising Committee has announced that it will postpone its international congress to 2022. The venue will remain Warsaw, Poland, and the new dates are 11-16 September 2022.
In taking this difficult decision the Committee of the INC took a number of factors into consideration:
- There remains continued uncertainty as to the spread of the COVID-19 virus and the nature and longevity of social-distancing measures that are and will be in place to curb this spread.
- Widescale and potentially long-term disruption to the travel industry make the prospect of booking and engaging in long-distance travel highly uncertain for the foreseeable future.
- Many of the INC member institutions are facing short- or medium-term cuts to travel budgets that risk severely curtailing attendance at a Congress held in 2021.
- There is an ever-increasing backlog of meetings postponed from 2020 to 2021 that will place a strain on the schedules of many potential participants next year.
- The addition of a year to the timetable will provide the Committee time to seek extra funds to help further subsidize attendance for members whose financial situation has deteriorated.
Michael Alram, President of the INC explained, “The uncertainty of the current situation has made us take this difficult step, which appears to be in the interest of everyone. The good news is that our colleagues in Poland will gain more time for preparations, and we are confident that we will be able to all meet in Warsaw in 2022.”
Alek Bursche, chair of the Polish organizing committee explained, “With deadlines for the signature of various contracts looming, it was important to take the decision at this stage, to protect our ability to hold the International Congress. We are grateful for the understanding of all our partners in the Congress, as well as of the INC membership.”
All conference deadlines for proposals and registration will be pushed back by 12 months. The scope of the accompanying Survey of Numismatic Research will be expanded to include 2020, and submission deadlines will similarly be extended.
Further details will appear on the Congress website.
Many details of what attendees can expect where published in this article on the congress as it was planned for 2021.
