s we all remain impacted by the effects of COVID-19 and as we start to see some early movement toward slowing reopening the world economy, plans for APEC2021 are now being developed. The Call for Papers (CfP) has been distributed, along with a request for reviewers. Stay tuned for additional details and I encourage everyone to check with www.apec-conf.org for updates over the coming weeks.

I'm rather sure everyone who reads this newsletter has seen the announcement regarding the effects of the cancellation of APEC2020. The three sponsors, including PSMA, have taken a serious financial impact. Regardless, we continue to see movement toward full recovery.

To "close the book" on APEC2020, here is how the APEC website reported on the complex efforts involved in providing refunds and making available the great conference content:

The Steering Committee and the Sponsors of the APEC conference, IEEE PELS and IAS in partnership with the PSMA, wish to thank our loyal community for their patience as we worked through the complex business negotiations required legally to reach our desired goal of maximizing your refund. Always, the health and safety of our APEC community was paramount in actions taken and our decision making.

The IEEE Societies and PSMA acknowledge the economic strain this situation has placed on our exhibitors, attendees, and vendor/provider partners. All of whom we consider part of our APEC community. To that end, dozens of individuals have worked tirelessly for weeks to assure a responsible and equitable outcome.

We would like to assure our community that the Sponsors have, since the beginning of this process, agreed to take no financial proceeds and in fact agreed to absorb a significant loss to settle obligations to vendors in order to maximize the refund to attendees and our valued and loyal Exhibitors.

To that end, the Sponsors have also agreed to absorb additional costs allowing us to now offer the following refund schedule:

• Exhibitors will receive a 100% refund
• Partners (i.e. APEC exhibiting companies who purchased APEC partnerships) will receive a 100% refund
• Attendees will receive a 40% refund
• Spousal tours and any extras (extra social tickets, proceedings/workbooks) will be returned at 100%

To date, all the technical and program materials have been distributed electronically via the APEC mobile app, website, or other electronic means to our registered attendees for download. We will continue to make other elements available as they become available. Furthermore, for our author community, we have arranged for all submitted papers to be published in IEEE Xplore (waiving the requirement for the papers to be presented).

As a multi-tiered and large-scale event, we hope our community can appreciate that APEC requires multiple years of planning and thousands of hours of labor, representing a significant investment across conference partners and service providers. Added to that complexity this year was the daunting task of interpreting and navigating the evolving national, state, and city-wide policies in the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic. Information regarding travel bans and health commission decisions were in flux right up to our decision point.

We wish the APEC community to please know that our decision to cancel when we did was to absolutely cap or limit those financial obligations and expenses so that the organizers and sponsors would be in a final position to return as much money as possible to our attendees and valued exhibitors.

We thank you all for your continued support and patience, and pledge to continue to work hard to advocate on your behalf.

Since this statement was published, APEC has also announced that select additional recordings and other content will become available on, or around, July 1st. Again, check www.apec-conf.org for more details. PSMA is also doing it's part and will present some of the Industry Session content that it had planned in webinar format.

As a long-standing participant in APEC for over 30 years, I have personally witnessed and benefitted from this truly amazing industry event. My hope and frankly my prayers are that we will return to the growth and excitement of our work together in 2021. In the meantime, please stay safe. 

Provided by Greg Evans, APEC 2021 Publicity Chair

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