Organizers of ECOC 2020 today posted notices on the event’s conference and exhibition websites announcing that the show will assume a virtual format this year. The virtual edition of the show will take place December 6-10, the dates to which it had been rescheduled earlier in the year from its original dates of September 20-24 (see “ECOC is postponed until December 6-10, 2020”).
The show organizers earlier had attempted to fashion the event as a live/virtual hybrid, particularly since travel restrictions would have made it nearly impossible for visitors and booth personnel from the U.S. to take part. This approach included a Demo Session in which those unable to travel to Brussels would have been able to submit videos of their technologies in action. However, with Europe appearing to be suffering from a second wave of COVID-19, the hybrid approach has been abandoned in favor of a purely virtual experience.
“ECOC 2020 is still hosted in Belgium… but 100% virtual,” reads the notice on the ECOC sites. “Unfortunately you will miss our local flavours, but we are still working to offer you all the best of ECOC, including high-level plenary talks, tutorials, invited speakers and most of all… papers describing your own top-level research work and results. We will also make our best efforts to offer you a nice platform to interact with each other as it were in a physical way in Brussels.
“So join us between 06 and 10 December for ECOC 2020 in “virtual” Brussels. Keep an eye on our website and social media to for details on registration and programme which will follow in the next few days,” the notice concludes.
For related articles, visit the Optical Technologies Topic Center.
For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.
To say abreast of fiber network deployments, subscribe to Lightwave’s Service Providers and Datacom/Data Center newsletters.
