SER President’s Message

November 1, 2020:  We’re getting very close to our very first virtual meeting December 16-18, 2020, and most of the presenters have by now already recorded their talks.  The virtual coffee is already brewing, so dust off your avatar and brace yourself for a wild ride in this new format.  There will be posters and lunchtime sessions, exhibitors and professional development, symposia and plenaries, just like an in-person meeting, but with none of that nasty SARS-CoV-2 floating around.  We have received a little bit of push-back about the registration fees, given that this amounts to 3 days of sitting with your laptop at your own kitchen table, which you can normally do for free.  But I urge you to consider the ways that this format offers more than the in-person meeting, not less.  Beyond avoiding the indignity of air-travel, you can now attend all parallel sessions, rather than having to make difficult choices between exciting talks that are scheduled simultaneously.  This is because the entire meeting content is available to registered attendees for a month after the meeting.  You can also attend all of the pre-conference workshops, which are spread out through November and December, and you can go back to watch a talk multiple times, or even do something that you surely never did at a previous meeting, which is watch your own talk.  You can also attend all the talks in your underwear, which is generally frowned on when we meet in person.  A further advantage of the online format is that we managed score the sort of iconic plenary speakers that you’ve never heard at SER meetings before, including best-selling author Ibram X. Kendi and Open Science pioneer Brian Nosek.  Having seen the miracle of virtual conferencing, we’re just a little bit worried that SER members might never want to go back to meeting in-person again.

There’s normally a whole year between meetings to recharge your batteries, but the 2021 conference (June 22-25) follows fast on the heels of the 2020 meeting, so submit your work early and often.  Abstracts and symposium proposals are all due by January 14, 2021.  Award nominations open November 25, 2020 with submissions due by January 15, 2021. We’re planning for an in-person meeting in beautiful San Diego, but as my grandmother used to say “Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht”.  What I mean is, we’re staying flexible, because 2020 taught us that prediction is hard, especially about the future.

The world remains a scary place.  COVID-19 cases have spiked here in Quebec as I write this note, and the US seems headed for a political meltdown that should be in full-swing by the time this memo hits your inboxes.  All the better for a virtual meeting so that you can spend those 3 days in December in a brief respite from that inhospitable real world.  But that real world still needs epidemiology, and it needs good epidemiology in both senses of the word (i.e. ethical and valid).  We are your professional society, the home of good epidemiology, the place to learn from and support your peers, to mentor the novices and mingle with the masters.  We are your people, and we are there for you.  Let SER be your support system, your professional family, the ones who love you for the nerd you know you are.  See you all soon.