Last March, the 52nd Conference of Irish Geographers (CIG) was due to be held in Trinity College Dublin. It was postponed because of COVID-19. With the agreement of our colleagues in Mary Immaculate College Limerick, we are hosting CIG in May 2021.

 

The uncertainty surrounding public gatherings due to COVID-19 means that we will be running the conference as a virtual event. This will be a first for the CIG and we are excited about it. Our intention is to organise an engaging and vibrant online conference, with an emphasis on facilitating the participation, connection, and scholarly engagement that have been so drastically disrupted over the last year.

 

In lieu of in-person communication, we will be offering session organisers and participants access to a bespoke online platform where pre-recorded videos of paper presentations can be uploaded for attendees to view. We will schedule pre-recorded videos to release as sessions and each session will have a dedicated live discussion slot in the conference programme to facilitate interaction between speakers and attendees. Panel sessions, keynotes, plenaries, and the GSI’s Annual Award Ceremony will be live events which will take place over the course of the conference.