Posted by g.law on 11 March 2020 - 9:30am 

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

We undertook a contingency investigation for Collaborations Workshop 2020 (CW20) in light of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Because of the rapidly changing situation with COVID-19, we have decided to change the way we are running CW20. The in-person event that was due to take place at Queen’s University Belfast from 31 March - 2 April 2020 is cancelled, and we will be running an online virtual event in its place. We hope to return to Belfast for CW21.

We ask that you please bear with us over the next three weeks while we update the Eventbrite page, the CW20 website and modify the format of the workshop to make the experience as useful and enjoyable to our participants as possible. We will keep you informed of all updates and connection details, as we explore this unexpected opportunity to trial new collaboration techniques!

Registration

As the event will no longer be in person, we are reducing registration costs from £250 for a complete ticket to £50 (or £25 per individual day). This still represents an amazing opportunity to meet researchers and research software engineers and explore open research, data privacy and software sustainability. We encourage all of those who previously could not make the journey to consider joining us online.

Already registered?

If you have already registered and are happy to participate in CW20 Online, you do not need to do anything - we will automatically refund the difference beginning 24 March 2020.  

Our refund policy allows refund requests up to one week before the event, but please note that the Eventbrite fee is nonrefundable. If you are no longer able to participate in CW20, please request a full refund (minus the Eventbrite fee) following these instructions before 17:00 on 23 March. 

If you have not received a refund by 3 April 2020, please get in touch with us.

General advice to participants on reclaiming costs

We recommend that you contact your suppliers and travel insurance provider to refund the cost of any booked accommodation or travel. We are happy to provide any documentation or information to support this, and you can download an official letter from the Institute here.

If you had flights booked on Flybe that were cancelled due to Flybe entering administration, we recommend you follow the advice here.

If you have any other questions relating to the cancellation of CW20 in Belfast, please email Rachael Ainsworth, CW20 Event Lead at r.ainsworth@software.ac.uk.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused, and we hope to still see you virtually at CW20 Online!