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What’s happening to spring/summer 2020 conferences?

I realize lots of things are uncertain now, but I am curious about what is happening to conferences you would normally be speaking at, or that you are (co)organizing that were scheduled for the spring of 2020. I am co-organizing a conference at Saint Louis University for June 22-23 2020 that is going ahead. We will do it as an e-conference. This is not only because it is an externally funded project on a grant that cannot be extended (I asked the funder), but also because we are curious about how feasible it is to do this as an e-conference. 

Still, I was supposed to be a paper respondent in one conference which is now deferred to a later unspecified time, and I'm also speaking at a conference that is being moved to next spring (2021). There is one other conference where the organizers have let us know they are closely monitoring the situation, but it seems unrealistic to me that the conference will go as planned (it takes place in the UK). 

This makes me wonder what is happening to philosophy conferences. What are people doing in response to the impossibility of a conventional conference format in spring 2020? Cancellation, deferral, how many will become e-conferences? 

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5 responses to “What’s happening to spring/summer 2020 conferences?”

  1. Illusion of Terra

    So far every single conference I intended to participate for about the next three months here in Europe has either been canceled or postponed indefinitely.
    Would have been interesting to try a sort of ‘live virtual conference’ or e-conferences similar to what gamers do on Twitch, but I suspect it would be a disaster given lag and people not being familiar with the technology (at least if it were live, which I would advise against). So far, no one offered any virtual alternative anyway.

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  2. Paul

    I am on the board of a regional conference that meets in Texas. We have postponed our early April meeting until late June, but I have a feeling that will not materialize. The next option is to have a virtual asynchronous conference with the ability to comment on papers (something like what academia and research gate already offer, but just for conference attendees). We shall see what happens…
    In general philosophers aren’t great at the virtual thing…

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  3. Julia Staffel

    The Formal Epistemology Workshop on Memorial Day Weekend will be held as an e-conference via zoom. (More detailed announcements to come.)

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  4. Anonny

    I just had a conference, that was supposed to be the end of May, delayed for a year. I also was going to a week long workshop in July that I suspect will be cancelled or delayed any day now. I have one more week long workshop at the end of may -12 people – that as of now, is still on, in person. We will see.

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  5. Michel

    I was organizing a divisional meeting in mid-April. We cancelled it, and all of the association’s other divisuonal meetings have been cancelled (going as far forward as June). AFAIK the cancellations have been pretty catastrophic for the association’s finances (it’ll survive, but it’s a huuuuuge blow).
    I’m slated to participate in a workshop in June which, as far as I know, has not yet been cancelled, but I’m not super optimistic that it’ll go ahead. We’ll see!

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