Announcement: 2021 SMAANZ Conference and 2021/2022 Membership

The SMAANZ Board met earlier this week, and given a number of contributing factors have decided to not hold a face to face conference in Canberra in December this year. Instead we will revert to an online ‘SMAANZ Week’ conference for a second consecutive year. The event will be held from December 1-3, 2021. We have had a large group of submitted abstracts for the online event, with these abstracts currently under review. Those who had noted a preference for the face to face conference will be offered an opportunity to revert to being part of the online schedule.  Registration for the online conference will open in one week.

Following the SMAANZ SGM yesterday, the SMAANZ membership registration will be $50 for full members and $20 for student members. This fee will include access to our online conference and the SMAANZ membership for the period October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022.

The decision to not hold a face to face event is a result of ongoing public restrictions, and uncertainty around the potential to travel to the proposed location travel of Canberra. Ultimately, the impact of these factors meant there would not have been the numbers to make a face to face conference a viable option. We do thank the University of Canberra, and in particular Stirling Sharpe and Catherine Ordway for their work in progressing plans for the proposed event and hope to work with them to continue to develop some of the planned panels and keynotes as part of the online 2021 event.

In terms of future conferences:

• Swinburne University of Technology will continue with plans to host the SMAANZ 2022 conference in Melbourne. Professor Emma Sherry will be the conference chair.
• Given the significant planning and foundation work already undertaken by the University of Canberra organising team, they have been awarded the hosting rights for the 2023 SMAANZ Conference.
• In line with our process of holding a face to face conference in New Zealand at least every third rendition, we will open an expression of interest for a New Zealand university to host the 2024 SMAANZ Conference. An expression of interest will follow in 2022.

Stirling Sharpe adds: “The University of Canberra is disappointed to not host an in-person conference in December for the second consecutive year, however, we believe this is the best decision to make given the current circumstances. We look forward to supporting the online conference. We want to thank the SMAANZ board for their support and thank all SMAANZ members for their interest in a Canberra conference – we look forward to welcoming you all in 2023.“

Again, we thank the University of Canberra, and the members of the SMAANZ community who provided feedback into this decision. We look forward to providing more details about the online event in the coming weeks.

Associate Professor Adam Karg
SMAANZ President