Dear IASPM Members,

   Unfortunately we have to announce that the IASPM Bienniel Conference to be held in South Korea in 2021 has now been postponed for 12 months. With a date in July 2021, we had hoped that we would be largely over the Coronavirus Pandemic, and at least some IASPM members would be able to attend the conference. The IASPM Executive Committee and conference local organising committee discussed this a number of times, and we have held off making a decision until now, in the hope of still going ahead with a blend of in person and online involvement. However it is now clear that it is unlikely many people would be able to plan travel in April, and travel will still be disrupted in many parts of the world in June/July.

   While we could have had an online only conference, it was felt that this would be difficult, with hundreds of presentations, technically and practically. We considered polling our members about this, but members would not know the constraints of the conference hosts, and such a decision could set an aspirational decision that clashed with practical details.

   The upcoming IASPM International conference will be held in South Korea in 5-9 July (provisional) 2022. The call for papers will reopen for all participants, as we are aware that this is a different commitment to the prior one. However there will be a simple process for those who had been accepted for the last conference, which will allow the same details to be submitted, or for abstracts to be amended, we are aware research will have moved on in a year. Details will follow on the email list.

   If you are aware of a conference that could clash with this event, please email the local organising committe <iaspm2021@gmail.com>. The 5-9 July 2022 date is only provisional, we cannot guarantee there will be no clashes, but we will try to arrange it so that the conference is not at the same time as any branch conferences or other major events, if it is possible to do so. We are aware that IASPM Branch Conferences will be happening in 2022, as will many other postponed conferences. Please could branches avoid those dates for their conferences, if your dates have not yet been published.

   IASPM Executive Committee would like to thank the local organising committee for their continuing hard work, and we are sure that when we will finally meet this will be a wonderful conference.

   There will still be some activities on the original date of the conference, we will have one or more online research presentations, an online AGM with reports from IASPM executive committee, the IASPM Book Prize, IASPM Executive Committee elections, and a vote on the venue of the subsequent conference. We intend that there will be an IASPM International Conference in 2023, so as not to disrupt branch conferences that happen every two years in between international conferences.

   Anyone considering applying to host the next available IASPM Conference, please note that it will still be in 2023.

   Our thoughts are with IASPM members around the world having to cope with difficult situations and various complexities. It saddens us that we will not all be able to meet together this summer, but we look forward to seeing you online at the virtual AGM, and at the conference in 2022.

Many thanks

Rupert Till

Prof. Rupert Till PhD MA BA(Hons) FHEA CMgr FCMI     

Chair of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music