Geert Jacobs
Dear ABC Members,
As we promised, your leadership team has been working to ensure the best possible outcome for our members regarding the 2020 annual conference, scheduled for October 28 to 31. We have taken account all considerations, with the most important being your health and well-being. As a result, given the tremendous amount of uncertainty caused by Covid-19, your Board of Directors has decided on a course of action that should provide the best possible outcome for our organization. Below we outline our plans for the next three years:
2020: ABC's annual international conference will be virtual, on the scheduled dates of October 28 to 31. While reviews are still underway, all submissions for the San Diego conference will be automatically considered for the virtual conference. When proposal approval notices are released this month, we will also ask submitters to confirm willingness to participate virtually.
We are working with several vendors to provide an excellent virtual experience, providing members with the ability to view the sessions asynchronously. Member registration will be approximately $175—about 50% the usual rate. As in the past, graduate students who are members and also presenting will be able to register with a fee waiver. We will provide more details as soon as they are available.
2021: Contractual details are being finalized to allow us to hold to hold the conference in San Diego in October 2021. By October 2021, we hope that the coronavirus pandemic will have abated and that travel will be both advisable and supported with funding.
2022: ABC is working with our colleagues at the Korean Association for Business Communication (KABC) and Global Advances in Business Communication (GABC) to hold our annual international event in Seoul in July 2022.
For this year, you can count on your ABC conference and leadership teams providing an interactive and engaging experience, one that is affordable and a good value for everyone. Imagine being able to see/review all of the talks you want to see/hear at your leisure (all the while being able to attend those that are scheduled with, we hope, the presenters available for questions).
Meanwhile, submit your nominations for ABC's award opportunities. Also, if you are a volunteer reviewer for conference proposals, please do finalize your reviews.
Stay tuned for further updates. If you have questions, send them to one of us at ABC HQ or the Conference Planning team (Ashley Nelson, Dee Fuchs, and Dirk Remley). In addition, please monitor the ABC website; we will post updates there as well.
In service,
Jim and Geert (for the ABC Board of Directors)
James M. Dubinsky, PhD
Associate Professor, Rhetoric & Writing, Department of English, Virginia Tech, USA
Executive Director, Association for Business Communication (ABC)
Geert Jacobs, PhD
Professor, Department of Linguistics, Ghent University, Belgium
President, Association for Business Communication (ABC)
