Farewell to EuCAP 2020 online
The time has come to close EuCAP 2020 - the 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation
EuCAP 2020 should have taken place March 15 - 20, 2020 in Copenhagen at the strait of Øresund connecting Denmark and Sweden, and the Conference Organizing Committee had prepared for this since 2016 with great devotion and enthusiasm. We were happy and very ready to welcome more than 1500 participants, more than 50 exhibitors, more than 25 sponsors, and more than 1200 technical-scientific presentations. It would have been a fantastic week of EuCAP.
However, with the increasing menace of the Corona virus and prioritizing people’s health and safety, it became clear that the physical conference could not take place, and the cancellation was announced on March 6, 2020. EuCAP 2020 was among the first scientific conferences to fall victim to the Corona virus but many have followed since then.
To honour all the preparatory work and to serve the EuCAP community, it was decided to recover as much as possible of the conference online - to make EuCAP 2020 into EuCAP 2020 Online. One major lesson from this effort is that the preparation of an online conference is as challenging and as time-consuming as that of a physical one. We did not have that time, but several elements did indeed take place online:
- The presentations of the Best Paper Award nominees (5 papers in each of the 5 categories) took place online
- Five of ten short courses took place online
- Six of eleven industrial workshops took place online, and several of them attracted 100+ participants
- The EuCAP Awards, the EurAAP Awards, and the TICRA-EurAAP travel grants were awarded and announced online
- The EuCAP 2020 Proceedings became available online, as planned in replacement of the USB-stick, and this included material for the bicentennial of electromagnetism
- More than 85% of the accepted papers were presented in the EuCAP 2020 online system during June 2020
- More than 920 of the accepted papers have been transferred to the IEEE Xplore Digital Library to become available for the entire IEEE community
EuCAP 2020 became the first online EuCAP; in addition, it may remembered for:
- Attracting a record-high number of 79 proposals for convened sessions
- Attracting a record-high number of 1540 manuscripts - and doing so with a first-ever firm submission deadline
- Attracting 1500+ registered participants
- Attracting 50+ exhibitors
- Attracting a record-high 25+ sponsors
- Celebrating the bicentennial of the discovery of electromagnetism by Hans Christian Ørsted
- Introducing Electromagnetics as a conference topic
- Introducing online Proceedings and discarding the resource-demanding USB-sticks and conference bags
- Introducing 10 full grants covering both travel and registration
Many thanks go to the EuCAP 2020 Conference Organizing Committee for not only preparing what would have been an excellent physical conference, but also for the additional work of establishing the online conference under challenging conditions. Each Chair of the Committee exercised substantial efforts in carrying out their significant responsibilities, and each Liaison of the Committee was very instrumental in generating the huge interest for EuCAP 2020 from around the world. I also thank the very professional support of CAP Partner in organizing the numerous practical aspects - a support that became even more vital with the cancellation of the physical conference.
Many thanks also go to EurAAP EuCAP Steering Committee for the constructive cooperation since 2016 to make EuCAP 2020 live up to the highest standards - honouring the heritage of EuCAP while also introducing innovations to develop the future of EuCAP.
Most thanks go to the EuCAP 2020 delegates, exhibitors, and sponsors for their interest in coming to Copenhagen and supporting the conference. It was my plan for Monday March 16th to stand in the doorway of the Bella Center and welcome you to EuCAP 2020 in person. This could not be - and I must also tell you this goodbye online. Now, I look forward to meeting you at EuCAP 2021 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Professor Thomas Kürner and his team are preparing an excellent edition of EuCAP – ensuring that this remains Europe’s largest and most significant antennas and propagation conference
My best wishes for the health and safety of you and your family.
Sincerely,
Olav Breinbjerg
EuCAP 2020 Chair
EuCAP 2020 - EuCAP 2021 Virtual Flag Handover Ceremony: EuCAP 2020 Chair Olav Breinbjerg is lowering the EuCAP Flag at the Technical University of Denmark June 2020 and EuCAP 2021 Chair Thomas Kürner is raising it at the Technical University of Braunschweig July 2020:
