SOT leadership has been faced with the enormous and unprecedented challenge of dealing with the fallout from the cancellation of the 2020 Annual Meeting and ToxExpo. One month after the decision to cancel the meeting, I wanted to provide you with a summary of how SOT leadership mobilized, prioritized, and sequenced our activity. What follows are the four main areas on which leadership has focused and what actions have been taken and are still underway:
Communicating the cancellation and identifying urgent needs: The first action was to inform the meeting attendees, invited speakers, exhibitors, and Supporters, as well as to the convention center, hotels, and all the service providers, of the decision, which was completed through telephone, email, the SOT website and Annual Meeting website, SOT Event App, and social media. The first communications occurred as soon as Council decided to cancel the meeting. The next urgent need involved working through the details of how to reimburse attendees for expenses already incurred and registration fees, as well as working with exhibitors to cancel or transfer their booth rentals and determine how Supporter contributions should be addressed. These processes were identified and put into motion in the week that followed the decision to cancel the meeting. - Presentation of 2020 Annual Meeting content: The Annual Meeting is a highlight for most of us, where we see the latest science and are exposed to areas of toxicology about which we may be less informed. We therefore felt it important to provide as much of the Annual Meeting content as we could—now virtually. We developed a Virtual Meeting schedule, with three Symposia presented as webinars during the week the Annual Meeting would have taken place, and others scheduled, usually two per week, from mid-March through the end of June. Many Continuing Education courses also are scheduled to be presented during this time frame. Additionally, we encouraged the submission of electronic posters, more than 500 of which are viewable on the Annual Meeting website through the Online Planner and web version of the SOT app, as well as through the SOT Event App. Work on this priority initiated within a day of the decision to cancel the meeting, was ramped up over the next two weeks, and is now at a maintenance level of activity.
- Dealing with the financial ramifications of canceling the meeting: There is still uncertainty about the extent of the financial loss from the meeting cancellation. Much effort has gone into mitigating losses, but they are still likely to be substantial. While we have the money in our reserves to cover the loss, given the market downturn, liquidating our reserves now would only compound the situation. Instead, we have devoted ourselves to finding other means of maintaining cash flow and paying bills while the market recovers. This effort started within a few days of meeting cancellation and is ongoing.
- Building a budget for next fiscal year that reflects the reality of this year’s losses: We already know that next year will be fiscally challenging. Carrying over registration fees and exhibitor booth rentals provides us with short-term relief, but this does reduce meeting revenue for next year. Income from our investments also is uncertain because of the state of the global economy. Therefore, we are in the process of examining our budget and determining what activities can be postponed or completed without affecting the Society’s mission and service to its members. The Committees and Component Group leadership have been engaged to help with this process. This activity started in late March and will extend through the approval of a fiscal year 2020/21 budget in mid-May.
As we continue to work through these items, we are pleased to continue to partner with the Virtual Meeting Supporters to present content from the Annual Meeting as webinars, with the recent addition of two events to the schedule:
- Tuesday, June 16, 12:00 Noon–2:45 PM (ET)—Symposium Session: “New Data and Tools for Understanding Chemical Distribution In Vitro”
- Tuesday, June 30, 12:00 Noon–2:45 PM (ET)—Workshop Session: “Immune-Mediated Adverse Drug Reactions: State-of-the-Art Learnings from Preclinical and Clinical Drug Development”
You are invited to join in experiencing the science from the Annual Meeting virtually as you stay tuned for further information and updates.
