The U.S.-based International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration (IIAR) has decided to cancel its in-person 2021 conference, citing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, to focus on the online section of the conference, which will take place in June.
“After careful review of several key factors involving the extended duration of the COVID-19 Pandemic, IIAR has come to the decision to cancel the face-to-face portion of our 2021 IIAR Natural Refrigeration Conference & Expo,” the organization said in an email statement. “We will no longer meet in Palm Springs, California, on June 20-23, 2021, as we had planned and as we had hoped. We will instead move the 2021 IIAR Natural Refrigeration Conference & Expo entirely online in the month of June 2021.”
The decision was not made lightly, the organization stressed, citing the safety of members, exhibitors, registrants as important in the decision.
The next face-to-face conference will be in Savannah, Georgia (U.S.), in 2022.
Last year, IIAR cancelled its March conference shortly before it was scheduled to take place, due to the announcement on March 11 by the World Health Organization that the COVID-19 outbreak had become a worldwide pandemic. It held an online conference May 18-June 5, 2020.
In addition to its conferences, IIAR also offers training, including an online platform that includes ammonia refrigeration training videos, workbooks and online testing.
