Dear Delegates,
After serious deliberation, we regret to inform you that the University of St. Thomas, host of the ACIS 2020 national meeting in Houston, Texas, has determined that it would be in the best interest of all parties to cancel the conference for this year due to circumstances beyond our control. We came to this conclusion, in consultation with the ACIS President and Vice President, due to the uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 (Coronavirus), and its potential impact on the health and safety of participants at the meeting.
We have been monitoring closely the updates on the spread of COVID‑19 and the risk assessments determined by the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. We have carefully considered multiple factors involved in hosting a large gathering of people from across the United States and other countries. We have reviewed the evolving nature of the virus and what appears to be its increasing risk to public health. We know this news will be disappointing, but we want to assure you that the deliberations have been made with the utmost care to ensure, first and foremost, that all of our ACIS conference participants and attendees remain safe and well.
We are grateful to our proposed keynote speaker, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, and to our plenary speakers, Sarah Townsend, Glenn Patterson, Cathy Brown, Richard Rankin Russell, Andrew Sanders and Maurice Fitzpatrick.