In May, the UK Industrial Vision Association’s (UKIVA’s) Machine Vision Conference and Exhibition (MVC) canceled its on-site event and instead featured a multitude of presentations that virtual attendees viewed online. “Our speaker program has always proved popular for those attending previous MVC events; therefore, we wanted to provide an opportunity for exhibitors to continue to share their industry insight via a new online hub,” said Allan Anderson, chairman of UKIVA, ahead of the event. Attendees of The Vision Show 2018 browse over 140 exhibits. This year, organizers opted for an online event due to the coronavirus pandemic. Courtesy of AIA. Because of COVID-19, UKIVA postponed its in-person event until 2021. With the coronavirus still lingering, conferences are faced with a few choices: cancel, reschedule, or go virtual. AIA’s Vision Show, originally scheduled for June 9-11, also opted to go virtual. “We didn’t make this decision lightly, but the safety of our visitors and exhibitors is our top priority. Out of an abundance of caution, we felt it best to cancel now,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of A3. AIA’s Vision Week, in place of The Vision Show, took place from May 18 to 22 with multiple virtual conference sessions on topics including laser triangulation, artificial intelligence, lens selection, high-resolution sensors, smart manufacturing, and bin picking. Attendees of The Vision Show 2018 browse the exhibition hall. Courtesy of AIA. Two other events — the Autonomous Mobile Robot Conference and the International Collaborative Robot Conference, which were to be co-located with The Vision Show — have been postponed until the fall of this year, with details to be announced. Embedded Vision Summit goes online The Embedded Vision Summit, originally scheduled for May 18-21, has become a virtual conference and will hold events each Tuesday and Thursday from Sept. 10 to 24. The European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) released a similar statement regarding their annual EMVA Business Conference, which had been scheduled to take place June 25-27 in Sofia, Bulgaria. “Whoever joined an EMVA Business Conference in one of Europe’s main capitals the last 17 years would be able to confirm that this special mood cannot simply be shifted to or even be substituted by an online event format,” wrote EMVA general secretary Thomas Lübkemeier in April. “Nevertheless, and especially as nearly all opportunities for technology exchange and to meet are taken away in these times, the EMVA is working on setting up the 18th business conference with a reduced program in an online format to take place [on] Friday, June 26.” The 19th EMVA Business Conference has been scheduled for June 10-12, 2021 in Sofia. For up-to-date information on the status of upcoming events, visit www.photonics.com/industryevents.aspx.