IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - December 2020 - 88

White Hot

by Robert V. White

Virtual Conferences

hroughout 2020 COVID-19
has affected power electronics workshops and conferences around the world. It is a
shame that it appears the situation
will not be getting better any time
soon. I am writing this in October
2020. Here in the United States the
COVID-19 pandemic is starting
another surge. Given the United
States' unwillingness to do what is
needed to stop the spread of this
coronavirus I expect the pandemic
to last well into 2021 - no matter
who wins the upcoming United
States Presidential election. This
will affect conferences and workshops both in the U.S. and in the
rest of the world. For conferences
in the U.S., participations and physical attendance will be limited not
only by travel restrictions for U.S.
residents but also because the U.S.
will be off-limits to much of the rest
of the world. For conferences and
workshops to be held outside the
U.S. participation and attendance
will be reduced because residents of
the United States may not be
allowed to enter the host country.
This will make planning events
more challenging as the number of
papers and seminars submitted and
the number of registered attendees
will be hard to predict. Previous
year's numbers will be of little value
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2020.3033740
Date of current version: 16 December 2020

IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE

when planning meeting rooms and
setting budgets.
The first major power electronics
conference affected by the pandemic
was the IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition
(APEC) 2020, scheduled for last
March in New Orleans, LA. The pandemic was developing in the weeks
leading up to the conference. The
APEC committee and sponsors were
struggling to understand the situation and if and how the conference
should proceed. The decision was
complicated as every survey of registrants and exhibitors said they were
still planning to attend. This was
probably because of APEC's " No
refunds " policy. Registrants and
exhibitors believed that if they cancelled they would not get a refund of
fees paid. On the other hand, if
APEC was cancelled, then the registrants and exhibitors felt that they
would be owed a refund. This is
understandable but it greatly confused the situation in the weeks and
days before the conference. In the
end, APEC was cancelled a week
before the conference was scheduled to start. Based on the COVID-19
situation in New Orleans at the time
APEC was scheduled, the right decision was made.
I have twice served as the general chair of APEC so I know what a
difficult situation the APEC committee and sponsors were in. There
are contracts with the convention

z December 2020

center, hotels, catering services, the
exhibit hall services company, the
social event venue, and others that
had to be resolved. There was the
question of refunds to the registrants and exhibitors. There was
also the question of if and how the
content submitted to APEC could be
used in a virtual event.
It was very difficult work but
eventually everything was sorted out.
The sponsors had to absorb a significant financial loss. A virtual conference, of sorts, was presented this
past summer. I don't think anyone
that had any involvement in the conference came away happy with the
experience.
IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE) 2020
was held 11-15 October 2020. Originally planned to be held in Detroit,
Michigan it first changed to a hybrid
event (a mix of in-person and virtual
presentations) before changing to a
completely virtual conference. IEEE
Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power
Devices and Applications (WiPDA)
2020 was originally scheduled for
the end of October in California.
The WiPDA committee decided during the summer of 2020 to cancel
the event altogether and start planning for a workshop in 2021. IEEE
Workshop on Control and Modeling
for Power Electronics (COMPEL)
2020, scheduled for 9-15 November
(continued on page 85)

IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - December 2020

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