2021 MESA Annual Meeting, November 29 – December 3, 2021

From the organizers:

Dear MESA Members and Annual Meeting Attendees,

We had truly hoped to be able to meet in person in Montreal in late October, but conditions will not allow us to convene safely, effectively, and at our usual scale.

The 2021 MESA Annual Meeting will instead be held virtually, November 29-December 3.

We made this decision with the Board of Directors after reviewing all of the responses to the recent straw poll. Over 85% of the respondents indicated they definitely will not attend, or that they most likely would not be able to attend, an in-person meeting. The main reasons were of course related to the health risks and potential for exposure to the Delta variant of Covid-19 at a large indoor gathering. Logistical challenges related to international travel in a pandemic, and all of the necessary related precautions both on and off site, also have dampened enthusiasm for the shape of the meeting. Last but not least, many of our members face a wide variety of institutional funding prohibitions and travel restrictions. We would like to share our sincere thanks to all who responded, as this helped us in making this very difficult decision.

Program
We will now initiate the process of rescheduling sessions to fit into the virtual meeting schedule, which has fewer timeslots (in the middle of the day on the East Coast of North America), in order to try to accommodate as many time zones as possible. We plan to post the new schedule by October 1; an announcement will be sent once the new schedule is posted. Organizers and participants should expect a separate email within the next few days with further information about scheduling requests.

Book Exhibit
Like last year, the conference includes a virtual exhibit where publishers, organizations, and programs can showcase their “booths” containing images, contact information, links, and the details about their company or organization. For information on exhibiting, please contact Sophia Angeletti ([email protected]).

FilmFest
Following the success of the virtual FilmFest of 2020, we are pleased to continue with the new format. Attendees will have the opportunity to stream short films, documentaries, and some full-length films from a variety of selected filmmakers.

Registration
We invite all those interested in attending to register for the meeting. Discounted registration is a benefit of MESA membership.

If you are currently registered and do not want to attend the virtual meeting, you may request a refund by completing the form at the bottom of the registration page.

We hope to convene once again in-person in December 2022 in Denver, Colorado.

Thank you as always for being part of this vibrant community, and we look forward to seeing you virtually later this year.

Jeffrey D. Reger
Executive Director

Dina Rizk Khoury
President