2020 ANZELA Conference Cancelled

Kia ora koutou katoa to our Australian neighbours

As you will have seen from the emails we have sent recently, the New Zealand Chapter has made every effort to develop a model of blended delivery that would mean we could run a New Zealand ANZELA conference in late September. Given the uncertainty about international travel, even across the Tasman, we had investigated the possibility of a blended approach involving physical days in both Australia and New Zealand with a remote option either for the full conference or for the offshore day only. The NZ Chapter committee has now met to discuss the results of the consultation process and other additional information on the cost and the resources necessary to hold such a blended model conference and, sadly, it would not be possible for even a no-frills option to be achieved for the kind of budget that would available for doing so.

So, the New Zealand Chapter has decided  with the greatest regret that we are unable to host a conference in 2020 and we need to cancel the event scheduled for Wellington on 28-30 September. 

We are of course very sorry to see our annual conference lost to Covid 19 but we are satisfied we have explored every practical option before making this decision.

The 2021 conference will be held in Adelaide and the convenor for that conference, Tony Houey, has assured us that those who have submitted paper proposals accepted for 2020 are warmly encouraged to send these on to the Adelaide conference committee.

If you booked accommodation in Wellington for the conference, please remember to cancel it.

The first half of 2020 has been very peculiar indeed but both our countries have survived this public health challenge extraordinarily well and we now hope the social and commercial effects of the lockdown will also show a similarly healthy trajectory.   

Ngā mihi 

Virginia Goldblatt – for the NZ chapter.

ANZELA