President's Message

Abstract

Hello Everyone, It is difficult to avoid starting any message with something like “no one expected the year we have had.” But it is true. What a year! However, as I sit down to write this column, we have just had the first vaccinations delivered in the UK and various other approvals are being awarded around the world, so there's every hope for the situation to improve in 2021. The uncertainties over travel, budgets, and the health situation in general means that we have had to take the challenging decision to have a virtual symposium for a second year. This was not a lightly taken decision and we are going to look to make this the best event we can, so thanks to everyone who returned their survey for the 2020 Virtual Symposium and for all your comments: many in support of what we did and a number with some suggestions for improvements. The 2021 Virtual Symposium will combine the ‘Raleigh’ and ‘Glasgow’ symposiums and will continue the partnership with EMC Europe. We will continue with a Scottish theme for the Symposium though. Please look out for messages and Symposium website entries that highlight our Scottish theme: the IEEE Glasgow Tartan, castles, food, the Loch Ness Monster…