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COVID-19 and your eLearning Conference Calendar

Perhaps I should just run a retraction of my article last month because COVID-19 has completely destroyed the 2020 eLearning conference calendar. And even if you could find a conference that hasn’t been postponed or cancelled, travelling there is going to be near impossible and certainly not something I’d recommend.

I guess I wasn’t paying attention last month because I should have noticed when WordCamp Asia was cancelled on February 12. I should have noticed the lack of tweets coming out of Bangkok from my WordPress friends on the last weekend of February.

It’s been a crazy month because it feels like a long time ago when I saw a tweet that the UKIE Moot was postponed.

I can only imagine the frustration of having to cancel or postpone a conference. Not to mention the frustration of those who’ve booked travel and accommodation trying to reschedule and recoup costs.

Let’s go through the local conferences and see what updates are available. Please keep in mind things are changing daily. This information was correct as of midday on March 24, 2020.

MoodleMoots, WordCamps & H5P

I haven’t noticed any changes on the Moodle Events page, other than the UKIE change I mentioned above. There are two events coming up in April and May that I have a feeling might be shifted, but that is only speculation.

In the APAC region, MoodleMoot Australia is still scheduled for July 7 to 9 in Sydney. I am hopeful that July is far enough away that MootAU20 won’t be affected.

I’ve also been keeping track of Mountain Moot, something that is on my conference bucket list. Their 10th-anniversary moot is still scheduled for July 15 to 17.

At the time of publication, the H5P Conference in Madison, WI from May 18 to 20 is still on, although the organisers are closely monitoring the situation. They do have this on their site:

Although it seems likely that the conference will not be arranged as planned we hope to see positive developments in the following days and weeks ahead; allowing us to meet up, inspire and learn from each other and keep growing the H5P movement. If we cannot proceed as planned, we will do our best to make sure that as much of the great program content becomes available as possible either at a later time or in a different form.

https://h5pcon-2020.h5p.org/covid-19-information.html

I’ve mentioned WordCamp Asia has been cancelled for 2020. WordCamp Europe has likewise been cancelled this year. WordCamp US is still scheduled for October.

Locally, no WordCamps in New Zealand or Australia have announced dates, but I suspect all organisers are looking at the back half of the year. Check out WordCamp Central for details.

WPCampus, a WordPress High Education conference is currently running a survey to determine if their event is going forward this year.

Local eLearning conferences

The ACCE 2020 conference that was to be held in Melbourne from April 15 to 17 has been postponed. No new dates have been announced.

The FLANZ conference that was to be held in Wellington on April 22 & 23 has been postponed. They were going ahead with it with a virtual attendance option, but I suspect the Prime Minister’s lockdown announcement was the last straw. No new dates have been announced.

The AVETRA Conference that was to be held in Melbourne on April 23 & 24 has been postponed. No new dates have been announced.

The VDC Teaching & Learning Conference that was to be held in Torquay on May 14 & 15 has been postponed. No new dates have been announced.

Velg Training’s VET CEO Conference that was to be held in Gold Coast on May 15 has been postponed. Their website indicates it may be held October 16 but it’s unclear if it’s still on the Gold Coast and if that date is solid.

EDIX, Japan’s largest IT trade show for the Educational Field will still be held in Tokyo on May 20 to 22! As of today, their site is indicating they’re going ahead but they’re implementing a number of measures against COVID-19.

EduTECH 2020, including EduBUILD 2020 and Learn@Work 2020, which was to be held in Sydney on June 2 & 3 has been postponed. The new dates are November 9 & 10 in Sydney.

No Frills – The 29th National VET Research Conference, which was to be held in Perth on July 8 to 10 has been cancelled.

The VETTech Forum 2020 is still on! It will be held in Brisbane on August 24 to 26.

TLC APAC 20, the annual Teaching and Learning Conference for Blackboard users is still on, scheduled for Cairns, Queensland from August 25 to 27.

I’m not sure if the 12th Annual 21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong is still on or not. It was scheduled for September 11 & 12, but their website for the conference is no longer providing information on the event. I’m reading tea leaves on that one.

The 2020 National VET Conference by Velg Training which was to be held in the Gold Coast on September 17 & 18 has been postponed.

While that was a disappointing amount of cancellations and postponements, it important to be safe and for the time being cancelling or postponing events is prudent. I’m sure it must be heartbreaking for those with events in April & May where it’s really not possible to proceed. And it must be very stressful for those with events later in the year trying to navigate the right path.

So, as someone who loves attending conferences, workshops and networking events, I want to thank all organisers out there for the hard work they do and acknowledge the hard work they have put into organising events that might not even happen.

Please everyone staff safe and take care.

Image by Tobias Heine from Pixabay

Scott Huntley
Latest posts by Scott Huntley (see all)

Scott Huntley

Kenneth "Scott" Huntley is an Instructional Designer with Transport for NSW and WordPress instructor with The Parramatta College. Scott is a Canadian (Nova Scotian) Expat living in the Southern Highlands of Australia. Scott is a Moodle enthusiast and an Internet of Things hobbyist.

4 thoughts on “COVID-19 and your eLearning Conference Calendar

  • More updates this morning (26/3/20):

    WPCampus has postponed the face-to-face conference until 2021, but will try to have an online event.
    MoodleMoot India has clarified that there will be a physical conference in October, but an online event on April 17 & 18.
    21 Century Learning Conference has clarified their dates are September 11 & 12 as I reported last month.

    Reply
  • Not a post you expected to make eh Scott? 🙁
    I can however clarify “In the APAC region, MoodleMoot Australia is still scheduled for July 7 to 9 in Sydney”
    In fact this HAS been cancelled, and will move to an online format.
    Details will be made available shortly.

    Reply
    • Wow, I didn’t know that. I suppose I’m still in the denial stage because I’m still surprised that anything past June is cancelled. The logical side of my head can appreciate it will be a long time before normality will return, but the emotional side can’t fathom we’ll still be ‘here’ in three months.

      I’ll continue to update about the above conferences, and I’ll focus on including more eConferences in the listings.

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