FIDI has announced that its 2021 Conference will take place in the Austrian capital Vienna from Sunday, 29 August to Wednesday, 1 September 2021.

While mindful of the current difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDI is hopeful that by the end of August most travel restrictions will have been lifted enabling the conference to go ahead. In the meantime, the situation will be closely monitored.

FIDI’s Secretary General, Jesse van Sas explained, “Basically, we felt it was important to do an in-person conference as soon as possible, despite knowing very well that we will never get our usual 600 attendees.  It will likely be smaller, shorter and hopefully, also a bit cheaper for the attendees and FIDI, during this difficult financial year.  We realise the date is near the end of the peak season, and that this is not the best time for a conference.  The best time would have been in April, but that is just not feasible, as you can imagine.  This year is exceptional obviously, and we hope that in 2022 we can get back to normal business.”

FIDI chose Vienna not only because it is a beautiful city, but also to make it as accessible as possible for FIDI Affiliates, around 45% of which are based in Europe.  Hotel prices are also very reasonable when compared with places such as Osaka, Dubai and San Diego and with luck, the weather will still be good enough to also allow a little sight-seeing.

FIDI is expected to release more details shortly.