News in 2021

FIG General Assembly approves changes to upcoming FIG Conferences

25 June 2021

FIG Congress 2022 has been moved to Warsaw, Congress 2026 will be in Cape Town, Working Week 2025 in Brisbane... Confused?

At the General Assembly 2021 there should have been election of the destination for FIG Working Week 2025. The two bidding destinations were:

  • Australia: Brisbane, submitted by Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI)
  • Poland: Warsaw, submitted by Association of Polish Surveyors (SGP)

This current pandemic situation and its impact on travels has brought the organisers of the FIG Congress 2022 from South Africa together with FIG Council to reconsider the travel and conference situation. Bringing attendees together to a FIG Event should first of all be safe and important is also that many will have the opportunity to travel to the destination. Travels are often not only to the conference itself, also further explorations of the country and surroundings is appealing.

The South African local organisers has written a letter to FIG Council in which they state:

Pursuant to our engagements and reports back to FIG, and keeping abreast with COVID developments and plans for the FIG Congress 2022, we want, as I am sure all members do, a Physical Congress meeting as a first-choice option for the Congress in 2022. Covid has of course turned travel upside down and is a major planning issue for the Congress.

Coucil is considerate that with no doubt travels will still be affected for some time - no one can know for how long. There are also other aspects that we need to take into consideration when organising a face-to-face event such as the vaccination plans of the country, there is an uncertainty of travel insurance, vaccination passports, quarantine rules etc.

For FIG it is important to bring people together. It is however important to bring people together in the safest way. We have shown that an online event can work, but it does not replace a face-to-face event. FIG Council is conscious that the local organisers from South Africa could also have organised a successful virtual conference, but FIG Council is keen on offering a face-to-face event again (with online additions).

The local organisers from South Africa continue in their letter to FIG Council:

The Congress is extremely important to us, but in the current environment we must also be conscious of what is best for FIG and ourselves, considering as well that 2020 was cancelled, 2021 is virtual and the financial impacts that comes with uncertain numbers of international delegates to a physical 2022 event. Considering a physical event, would all FIG partners be able to travel, FIG council and then importantly the international delegates. To plan a Physical event and then find that many FIG member representatives and or Council members cannot attend would run counter somewhat to the purpose of holding the event. We can easily hold a Virtual event, we already have the technology experience and knowhow for this within the LOC. We can even hold a Hybrid event, but costs of such is a big worry to us as costs are enormous in such cases, and we don’t particularly want to go down this route.   Prudently, we all need to take a hard look and say what is best for 2022 – where could most delegates travel to, and seriously consider such.

FIG is thankful to the South African LOC for their considerations. Council has decided to suggest to the General Assembly - after close consultations with the future destinations -  changes that might dimish the risk of not having a face-to-face event in 2022.

These changes will be that the Congress 2022 will be moved to take place in Warsaw, Poland instead of Cape Town, South Africa. FIG Council estimates that having more face-to-face participants in Poland in 2022 will be more likely than in South Africa. Instead, the South African organsiers have been offered to organise the following Congress in 2026 instead.

Another consquence of this is that there is now only one destination for the FIG Working Week 2025, Brisbane Australia and FIG Council therefore suggested to the General Assembly that this Working Week will be given to them without election.

In other words:

These changes were adopted by the General Assembly 2021.

Thanks to the Local Organisers from both South Africa and Poland for their positive approach and flexibility.

For the Polish local organisers this is a huge challenge organising the FIG Congress 2022 in less than one year - and FIG Council thanks them heartily for their spirit, will, and engagement to make this come true.

Already in 2020 there were changes to the future destinations. The Working Week 2020 in the Netherland was cancelled and the local organisers from Ghana generously offered to the Dutch organisers to take over 2021, and therefore the Working Week in Accra Ghana has been moved to 2024.

To sum up:

The future FIG Conferences will be:

Year Location Dates
FIG Congress 2022 Warsaw, Poland the dates have not yet been settled
FIG Working Week 2023 Orlando, Florida, USA 28 May - 1 June 2023
FIG Working Week 2024 Accra, Ghana the dates have not yet been settled
FIG Working Week 2025 Brisbane, Australia the dates have not yet been settled
FIG Congress 2026 Cape Town, South Africa the dates have not yet been settled

 

Louise Friis-Hansen
28 June 2021