Planning international academic conferences has become very complicated in the midst of a global pandemic that has still not run its full course. AEGT2020, originally scheduled for early June of 2020 in Vancouver, was cancelled in mid-March out of concern for the health and safety of the hundreds of presenters, other attendees and support staff who were expected to participate.

The Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE) and the Adult Learning and Education group at UBC are committed to hosting a virtual version of the original conference design on June 3-6, 2021. All of the other seven partnering organizations in the 2020 conference will again be co-hosting the 2021 conference. Below are details that we hope will provide those who expected to present at AEGT2020—and others who may wish to participate in 2021—with answers to questions about what we are planning.

The only way to guarantee that the conference will be held in 2021 is to offer it as a fully virtual event with a combination of “pre-recorded” video presentations supplemented by synchronous and asynchronous interactions. We also expect there will be a limited number of live, “real-time” interactive presentations, but plan to limit these due to the challenges of scheduling around global time zone differences and the desire to avoid consistently disadvantaging those from certain regions of the world who wish to participate.

All those whose presentations were accepted for the 2020 conference will be asked to confirm by December 15, 2020, whether or not they wish to have a place on the 2021 virtual conference program by completing a webform—see the “2020 Presenters” tab—on the AEGT2021 conference website.

Those who submitted their work for the AEGT2020 Proceedings who indicate they would like to present at the 2021 conference will be assigned presentation slots in the conference schedule.

Those whose presentations were accepted for 2020 but who did not submit their work for the 2020 Proceedings will be expected to submit their papers or other summaries for the 2021 Proceedings by the deadline below in order to have their presentation included in the 2021 conference schedule.

We are still finalizing the platform for the conference, but it is likely that those presenting their work will be asked to prepare and submit in advance of the conference pre-recorded videos of their presentations. These videos will constitute the primary “content” of each presentation followed by synchronous or asynchronous interaction. Limits on the length of each video will be provided to presenters along with directions on how to record and submit them. Additional details will be posted on the conference website and sent to all those who will be presenting.

We realize that some researchers who may wish to participate in AEGT2021 either did not submit proposals for AEGT2020 or have completed new work that they wish to submit for the 2021 conference. CASAE has agreed to accept and adjudicate all “new” proposals for the 2021 conference. At this point we are unsure how many additional proposals can be accepted—beyond those accepted for 2020—but we will do our best to accommodate as many “new” proposals as possible. Watch the AEGT2021 conference website for this “limited” call for new proposals.

All those participating in the conference will be expected to register. Presenters will be expected to register by the end of the “Early” registration period. Presenters who have not registered by this date will have their presentation removed from the conference schedule. Access to conference sessions will be via a password link provided to registrants just prior to the start of the conference. Registration fees will be posted by March 15, 2021.

Other partnering organizations

• Adult Education Research Conference
• Adult Learning Australia
• American Association for Adult and Continuing Education
• European Society for Research on the Education of Adults
• Indian Adult Education Association
• International Society for Comparative Adult Education
• Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults