Dear IUMI members and friends,

It has been more than a year since COVID-19 started raging around the world and changed the way we live and work. Given the prevailing uncertainty about how the situation will unfold in the coming months and to ensure the safety of our delegates, the IUMI Executive Committee decided together with the Seoul organizers that the safest and most appropriate way to hold the IUMI 2021 Seoul conference is online again.

We are strongly committed to continuing the outstanding programme of learning and debate that the IUMI conferences have always delivered. While we would have much preferred to welcome you to Seoul in person this September, we invite you to join IUMI 2021 virtually. Under this year’s common theme

“Pathways to a sustainable, resilient and innovative future”,

a wide range of topical issues will be presented and discussed. To ensure our participants are able to attend all workshops, the IUMI 2021 conference will be spread over a two-week period with ten different workshops from Thu, 2 - Wed, 15 September. Building upon last year’s digital format, we will hold one workshop each working day in a two hour session. Each workshop will run twice a day to ensure all time zones are able to participate. Sessions will comprise a mix of presentations, panel discussions and Q&A.

In addition, the conference website and our tailor-made online portal will be available at all times allowing you to plan your attendance, view background information and interact with the speakers, panellists and with each other.

Tying in with IUMI 2020, the conference fee will be comparable to last year and will include access to all ten workshop sessions. Based on the promising feedback received, we have decided to open the online conference to the wider maritime industry again and are inviting non-IUMI members from non-member countries as well as representatives from brokers, lawyers, surveyors and other stakeholders involved in the maritime business to join the event.

A detailed agenda and registration details will be available on the conference website in late spring. While we would of course have preferred to see you in Seoul this September, we do hope you will join us for a virtual #IUMI2021 with a Korean flavour!

Please rest assured that IUMI is planning, subject to the further development of the pandemic of course, for an “in-person comeback” in Chicago in September 2022.

We look forward to you joining us in Seoul virtually!

Sincerely,

Lars Lange

IUMI Secretary General