10th International Tularemia Conference postponed to September, 2022
In light of world events, you may be wondering about the 10th International Conference on Tularemia, which was planned for 12 – 15 October 2021 in Grenoble, France. Throughout the summer and fall, we have been in touch with the conference venue, the World Trade Center Grenoble. Although we did not have a formal release option built into the original contract, recently the WTC offered us the opportunity to reschedule the conference for 6 – 9 September 2022 without penalty. After consideration among the TULISOC officers and organizing committee, we have accepted this offer. This will be the first time in many years that our International Conferences have not been held on a three-year cycle. While unfortunate, we believe this choice is the best option under the circumstances.
We reasoned that the meeting was really best as an in-person event, and not optimal as a virtual meeting. Further, we suspect that participants’ research progress has likely been slowed by prolonged lab shutdowns and redirection of scientific activities. Although the discussions with the WTC were taking place before the vaccine news progressed, we continue to believe that postponing the meeting is the best option. This is because of the uncertainties remaining about the time line of vaccination and its overall impact on the course of the pandemic; ongoing concerns about travel; and the probable research impacts.
We very much hope that this change will meet with your approval and will allow you to plan to attend the 10th International Conference. We will also explore the feasibility of adding virtual attendance, in addition to in-person attendance, in order to make the conference accessible to as many people as possible. The meeting web site (https://tularemia.org/) is currently being updated, and the latest information will be posted as it becomes available. We will also be discussing how to handle officer elections, which are intended to take place every three years as well.
Last but not least, I encourage you to join or renew your TULISOC membership via this link (https://www.xcdsystem.com/tulisoc/member/). Your modest dues allow TULISOC to build our scientific community, including planning meetings and enabling communications. Thanks so much for your ongoing support of TULISOC, and I hope you and yours are safe and well, wherever you may be!
Kind regards,
Karen Elkins
President, TULISOC
