Dear ECREA members,

I am writing with an update on our plans for the European Communication Conference “Rethink Impact” hosted by Aarhus University between October 19 and 22 2022.

The call for papers for the conference is about to be published.

In planning for the conference the ECREA organising committee has considered a variety of options to increase the inclusivity of the conference for those who are not able or willing to travel to Aarhus for whatever reason by incorporating online elements.

The most comprehensive hybrid options substantially increase the complexity of organisation thereby increasing the costs of the conference to participants while risking the smooth running of the conference and potentially jeopardising the quality of interaction during the panels. The more comprehensive hybrid options would also make the objective of financially breaking even more difficult to achieve.

For these reasons we have developed the following approach which we believe is the best possible option at this time of uncertainty, given the constraints we are working with:

In addition to the in person conference at Aarhus each section, network, temporary working group will organise an online event in the two weeks leading up to October 19th. They will have autonomy in terms of the organisation of these online events (number of days; scheduling of panels; degree of interactivity; the format of panels and workshops; peer review process);

All people attending these online events will also have online access to the plenary sessions of the conference at Aarhus and to the general assembly;

The costs of the online events will be kept to an absolute minimum (and ideally zero) in order to maximise their inclusiveness;

In the interests of reducing possible academic segregation between the online events and in person conference and in the interests of maximising participation both the online events and the in person conference are open to all. The low cost nature of the online events raises, for example, the possibility that colleagues may wish to attend as auditors rather than paper presenters.

The staggered approach to the online events and conference has additional advantages in terms of participation allowing members to potentially attend more than one event if they wish.

We will continue to monitor best practice in conference organisation and introduce more hybrid elements as and when they become viable options for ECREA.

I look forward to seeing you virtually at the online events and the in person conference in Aarhus in October 2022!

John Downey

ECREA President