Registrants at this year’s International Seating Symposium (ISS) will be able to attend seating and mobility courses from the comfort and convenience of their own homes and offices.
The University of Pittsburgh’s RSTCE, the host of the symposium, announced on Jan. 3 that this year’s edition will offer virtual attendance only.
“While we have all hoped that our flexibility would be rewarded with a return to ‘normalcy,’ we are once again beholden to circumstances outside of our control,” the Jan. 3 e-mail said, referring to the fact that this ISS had already been rescheduled twice.
“As such, we have decided to move the in-person portion of the 37th ISS fully online. Rather than postpone the event (again!) and continue with the uncertainty, we have decided to put all our efforts into making Virtual ISS 2022 as successful as possible.”
Citing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — and alluding to the Omicron variant that rapidly spread during the winter holidays — the ISS team noted that many “healthcare facilities, universities, and businesses are barring travel for the safety of their clients and employees.”
Logistics would have also been a challenge, the announcement said: “The University of Pittsburgh has postponed the start of in-person classes, suspended other events, and informed us that they are unable to support an in-person ISS.”
Virtual ISS instructional courses, the e-mail said, will still offer CEUs and will be presented and broadcasted according to the current ISS schedule. Pre-conference workshops have been canceled because their hands-on format doesn’t transition well to a virtual medium.
The ISS will include a virtual exhibit hall, and all presentations will be available to view both live and on demand after the event.
At press time, the ISS team said additional details for speakers and exhibitors, as well as information on existing hotel reservations, would be announced soon.
Listen to the Mobility Management interview with ISS Director Mark Schmeler: https://mobilitymgmt.com/podcasts/2022/01/2022-iss-format-change.aspx
