EBSA conference Luxembourg 2021 - cancellation

As members will be aware, the Covid-19 pandemic has again gained strong momentum across Europe and the situation is expected to remain extremely fluid for a substantial part of 2021. At this point it is uncertain when in 2021 we will be able to freely travel within Europe (and from further afield), or if such a situation will even arise within the next year. Furthermore, country-specific restrictions change vary rapidly and with little notice, introducing further complexity to international travel. In order to give certainty to our members at an early time point, Council has taken the difficult decision to definitely cancel the EBSA conference and courses that were scheduled to take place in Luxembourg in April 2021. For clarity, the conference will not be rescheduled to later in 2021. Council wishes to thank the Luxembourg Local Organizing Committee, the Conference Programming Working Group and the Education and Training Work Group for all their efforts over the last few years and regrets that the high quality program that they have assembled will now not take place. EBSA hopes and expects that during 2021 we will jointly succeed in resolving the Covid-19 pandemic to such a level that we can successfully organize the next physical ‘in-person’ EBSA conference in 2022.

Paid tickets will stay vaild for the 2022 EBSA conference.

2021 - alternative online program for the conference and courses

Building on the success of this year’s online webinars and training courses, EBSA Council, together with CPWG and ETWG, are currently working on an online program for 2021 as an alternative for the conference learning and networking opportunities. Final content, format, and frequency have yet to be decided, but members can look forward to events (including webinars and training courses) being held online throughout 2021. EBSA has always been a very member focused association and Council would like to give members a chance to come up with ideas for topics and formats for 2021, in particular for the webinar program. Please share your ideas and suggestions by sending an e-mail to our secretariat (ebsa-office@ebsaweb.eu).

Successful EBSA Covid Webinar and online training courses 2020

The EBSA Covid Webinar

The EBSA Covid Webinar took place on the mornings of 6 and 8 October 2020. For the two half days there were 180 different participants, and at all moments there were more than 100 participants online. The feedback on the contents of the webinar was very positive and we can now build on this experience for future events. It turned out that the organization of webinars bears many advantages including no travel requirements, which makes it much easier to participate. Council is aware though, that on the long run, webinars cannot replace the conference where the membership will gather again in-person.

As an EBSA member you can check out the videos of the webinar on our website (login required, Information how lo login on the new EBSA website will be sent out within the hour).

 The EBSA online training courses

The EBSA online training courses proved very successful, with 347 people taking part in total across October and November. The four different courses received strong praise from the participants and the quality of the courses was rated very high. The good experience with the online courses opens up the opportunity for a future online program in the coming years. Additionally, one of the courses was simultaneously translated into Russian to allow participation of certain Eastern European countries, with very good results. This opens up the possibility to reach out to other parts of Europe as well with future training events. As with the webinars, however, these online courses cannot effectively replace all in-person courses, such as certain training courses for which hands-on interaction is necessary for practical exercises, e.g. use of safety cabinets or PPE.

As course attendee you can check out the videos and material of your training course on our website.