Pre-Call for IIPPE Conference

Dear IIPPE member,

Like most other organizations that are similar to ours, we have been trying to wait as long as we can to make a decision on what to do about our annual meeting this year. As of now it is unfortunately clear that a live meeting, or even a partially live (“mixed”) meeting, will not be possible in September. So what we now are aiming to hold is a completely virtual meeting.

This can only happen if we can contract a suitable platform at a suitable price. We are working on that now, and have not yet done so. Our two options seem to be to work through a commercial provider, or though some university where we have contacts, and we expect the latter could be significantly less expensive, and possibly better suited to exactly what we need. We are exploring this possibility with a couple of universities right now, but it would be very helpful if any IIPPE member could let us know if they work for, or have contacts to, some university that we could also check out. If you do, please let Al Campbell know at al@economics.utah.edu.

We traditionally meet Wednesday to Friday, with a workshop the day before and a social/cultural event the day after. Since this will be entirely virtual, it seems it would be better, as far as people being free to present at and attend sessions, given that they will still be working, if it is on a weekend. We are proposing Saturday and Sunday, September 11 & 12, with a workshop the day before on Friday September 10.

The purpose of this Pre-Call is above all to allow IIPPE members to start to think about what they would like to present and discuss this year, and to begin talking with friends about joint or related work, prior to when the Call goes out. When the Call does go out is contingent on our knowing that we have a platform that will do what is necessary. We hope to have the Call out by the beginning of next month.

Al is the point person for the CC for communicating with IIPPE members concerning this pre-call stage of building the conference. If you have any questions, please email him at his address above.

In solidarity, the Conference Committee