"The health and safety of all involved with the International Elastomer Conference ultimately outweighed any other considerations and guided our decision to convert the in-person conference planned for Knoxville, Tenn., to a virtual event," she said.
The Rubber Division will work with scheduled speakers, exhibitors, sponsors and industry partners to plan the IEC 2020 experience, Miller-Barclay said, adding that a decision is still being made on the best platform to use for the virtual IEC.
"We guarantee that virtual attendees can expect the same great content that we are known for delivering at our International Elastomer Conference," she said. "We are also excited about this new virtual platform bringing the International Elastomer Conference to many who were not going to be able to travel to Knoxville this year and to new people who haven't been able to attend previously."
Once details are finalized, the Rubber Division will post information about the virtual IEC on the conference website at rubberiec.org.
A variety of events were scheduled for the in-person IEC, including the technical meeting, expo, educational symposium, a Women's Preconference Workshop, keynote address and a variety of networking events.
The Rubber Division also had planned to have its Science & Technology Awards Ceremony and winner presentations at the Knoxville event. Those normally are part of the division's spring meeting, which was canceled this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.