IOCongress2022: Congress update

International Ornithological Congress (IOCongress2022): Durban, South Africa 14-20^th August 2022

Conference update and call for symposium proposals

Please find the pdf version here: pdf. 

The IOCongress® has convened every four years since 1884, bringing together the world’s ornithologists to share state of the art research. It reconvenes in Durban, South Africa, in 2022, after another successful congress in Vancouver, Canada, in 2018 with over 1200 delegates. 

But since then the world has changed and with it, the format of international conferences. In this spirit, the IOCongress2022 in Durban will be a hybrid conference. It will provide both the core traditional IOCongress where ornithologists can meet, network, present their work in person, and experience the birding environment of southern Africa, and a virtual IOCongress where ornithologists can fully participate without having to travel to Durban. All symposium and oral presentations, posters, workshops, round tables discussions, and exhibits will be accessible live or in pre-recorded form for every conference delegate regardless of their location. This will allow participation in any part of the IOCongress, at any time, removing the usual limitations of parallel sessions and lack of time to see and take part in everything of interest at the conference. 

The traditional in-person IOCongress will provide the core event and the catalyst to make the larger, virtual conference exciting and immediate. In-person attendees will have a more immersive conference because every presentation, Q&A session, and everyone is accessible, balanced by exciting local birding opportunities and field trips. 

Virtual attendees will benefit by taking part fully in a real, live event, with its spontaneity, immediacy, and excitement. All virtual participants will have the opportunity to attend sessions in the live IOCongress in small break out groups, re-creating either the randomness and chance meetings that often make a conference, or the reunion of already established groups of conference colleagues. 

Everyone, whether attending in person or attending virtually, will be fully connected to each other through the conference platform, allowing meetings and networking to function much more easily. 

All IOCongress contributions will be both pre-recorded and live, allowing participants to switch between in-person and virtual attendance. All presenters will be available for extended virtual Q&A sessions overcoming the frustration of the best sessions always being too short.

The conference format will give the IOCongress the necessary flexibility to deal with current or emerging global events, will reduce the carbon footprint, and provide every ornithologist on the planet with the opportunity to present their work and hear about the world’s best ornithology regardless of their career stage and limitations of location, cost, and time.

The provisional conference timetable is:

The portal for the submission of symposium proposals is found at https://iocongress2022.com/call-for-symposia/  Deadline: 3 December 2020.   

Portals for the submission of proposals for other conference contributions (oral presentations, posters, workshops, and round table discussions) will open in Feb 2021. Provisional deadline: December 2021.

Call for emergent round table topics: Jan 2022. 

Final program: February 2022.

PLEASE: Put the date 14-20^th August 2022 in your diary. And please submit your symposium proposal NOW https://iocongress2022.com/call-for-symposia/

Bring your state-of-the-art ornithology to the attention of the world.