This was one wild year for planning the ARES Annual Meeting! We used a new system to gather paper submissions, rolled out a new system for payments, broke in a new team of track managers, and integrated another organization into the ARES conference. Within a very short time we had SOLD OUT the hotel and were out of space for more paper presentations. These great accomplishments were due to the hard work of a great team in spite of a crazy man at the helm as Conference Chair. Then, we started hearing a news of a virus that was in China and starting to spread. First our Chinese delegates were informed they would be unable to attend, then Italy, Australia, the UK, and then… it hit the US. With mounting health concerns, many delegates unable to travel and some good negotiation with the hotel to avoid any penalties, we made the tough decision to cancel the ARES 2020 Annual Meeting. With months of work left to just unwind, process refunds and deal with the cancellation, we also decided to focus all of our efforts and enthusiasm on having a great 2021 meeting in Hawaii rather than try to hobble together some sort of online/virtual conference. Our partners in the conference, COBRA, decided to move forward with a virtual conference but have just now decided to cancel that effort too.
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