Scientific Programme

The Scientific and Social programme of the 2020 Annual Meeting will continue at Virtual Annual Meeting. Please follow a new website www.e-a-a.org/eaa2020virtual for more information.

Confirmation of cancelled AM

Below, you can download the pdf confirmation that the onsite Annual Meeting has to be cancelled. In case you need any further confirmation or a personalised one, please email EAA Secretariat at helpdesk@e-a-a.org.

CANCELLED: 26th EAA Annual Meeting in Budapest, Hungary, 26-30 August 2020

Annual Meeting registration fee refunds

1 June: 

Dear EAA members

As anticipated in the message to members from the EAA President of 31 May, the EAA plans to refund registration fees for the cancelled 26th EAA Annual Meeting in Budapest.

The fee will be refunded to you between 18 June and 17 July. In this regard, please let us know at helpdesk@e-a-a.org by 14 June if anything that may impact on the refund process has changed since your payment (such as bank account details). For administrative reasons it is unfortunately not possible to use the 2020 registration fee to cover the registration of a future EAA Annual Meeting.

If you wish to donate all or part of your Annual Meeting registration fee to EAA, please let us know at helpdesk@e-a-a.org also by 14 June. Such generosity will help support the EAA to go forward after a year in which it has suffered considerable financial loss due to the cancellation of the Budapest Annual Meeting.

As you have been informed, the EAA will now organise a Virtual Annual Meeting (https://www.e-a-a.org/EAA2020virtual) in the same week as the cancelled onsite meeting: 24 – 30 August 2020. The Virtual Annual Meeting will be held as a service to members, i.e. there will be no registration fee or other charge for current (2020) EAA members. All current members are welcome to take part in the Virtual Annual Meeting this year. More information will follow in the coming weeks.

We go forward in confidence. We are looking forward to the virtual event and its many encounters and wish you all the best until then.

Your EAA team


EAA 2020 - Virtual Annual Meeting

30 May:

Dear EAA members

It took longer than expected to launch the practicalities for the EAA 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting because of the need to find a suitable and respectful solution for all the parties involved in the cancelled Budapest Annual Meeting. Now we can come back to you with important information we hope you will enjoy. Amidst the disruptive effects of coronavirus pandemic, it seemed difficult to envisage a feasible alternative. But the members´ willingness to go ahead and replace the in-person meeting by the first virtual Annual Meeting of the EAA, gave us the strength to search for an innovative option. More than 150 sessions involving 1800 presentations and most of the keynote speakers have confirmed their participation. The Virtual Annual Meeting will take place on August 24-30. It will be performed as a service to members, i.e. there will be no registration fee or other charge for current EAA members. All current members can take part in the Virtual Annual Meeting this year. This policy has been approved by the EAA Executive Board considering the exceptional circumstances that we all face and, particularly, in attention to those who suffer from the devastating economic impact of the ongoing crisis in the archaeological sector. In a few days, we will start reimbursing the Budapest registration fees. If any of you wish to donate all or part of this fee to EAA, it would help EAA – while financially stable – to cope better with the losses around the Budapest cancellation. The costs of organizing the virtual Meeting are high but affordable. This all will be presented and discussed in full at the Annual Membership Business Meeting, held virtually on August 28.

We expect the professional online platform for the Virtual Annual Meeting (VAM) to give a satisfying experience to participants. It will recreate in the virtual space the usual format of our Meetings with all their activities and atmosphere. We call you all to meet there and produce the special magic of the EAA for lively open discussions about relevant topics of our discipline and practice.

Soon after this message, you will get further information from our Secretariat regarding the VAM and the reimbursement of Budapest registration fees. Meanwhile, you can access already the VAM-webpage through the link www.e-a-a.org/EAA2020virtual

There are still three matters I should address. It is the enthusiasm and loyalty of our members that led us to find a solution. This prompt reaction could be achieved only because of the re-organization of the Secretariat and its processes that EAA undertook in recent years. Our staff, your Board and our colleagues in Budapest have done an exceptional work to find the best solution to the problem. But adaptation never ends and the recent process has shown us some procedures that we must improve. Secondly, the heart-warming support of the Scientific Committee, session organisers, presenters and keynote speakers fuelled us to follow this way.

In a more personal sense, if I may, I must applaud once again the sort of association of members we are. Not a single message of complaint or worries was received during the last very dramatic three months. The sense of communality and trust helped us immensely to respond to a very uncertain situation. At the end of March, we said that 2020 cannot be a lost year for the EAA, and it will not be. EAA will arise from this situation stronger, more innovative and prepared to adapt our knowledge and practice to the challenges this crisis brings. This is for us all!

On behalf of the EAA Executive Board
Salud, keep well and take care,

Felipe Criado-Boado
President of the EAA


Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

21 April: 

The Covid-19 pandemic and associated challenges globally have had significant consequences for the EAA: for its members, its conference organisers in 2020, and for its conference organisers in the coming three years.

It has become clear that the EAA Annual Meeting cannot be held onsite in Budapest in 2020. Since we released our last statement, there has been intensive discussion within the EAA Executive Board and the Secretariat as well as with the Budapest team, their partners, and our other future local conference organisers about possible solutions.

We all are convinced that 2020 cannot and will not be a “lost” year in the life of EAA. Also, because members need EAA as a platform and partner especially in challenging times.

The practicalities of a virtual Annual Meeting in 2020 are being actively examined. At the request of the Budapest team, it has been agreed that the EAA Annual Meeting 2022 would be held in Budapest with the same spirit of developing our networking and supporting our colleagues.

Therefore, our plans are as follows:

  • 2020 EAA Annual Meeting virtual (details to be announced soon)
  • 2021 EAA Annual Meeting in Kiel (8-11 September; stays as planned)
  • 2022 EAA Annual Meeting in Budapest (dates to be confirmed; moved from 2020)
  • 2023 EAA Annual Meeting in Belfast (30 August - 2 September; moved from 2022 - we extend our sincere thanks to the Belfast team for their flexibility and their efforts in this regard!)

Specific plans for the virtual meeting in the last week of August 2020 are not yet in place – it is too early. However, we expect to be able to communicate details about it in a few weeks from now. The plan is to keep the scientific programme as planned, including the motto, themes and most, if not all, of the sessions and individual contributions. The Scientific Committee has generously offered to continue its work, and the session organisers will be contacted immediately.

We will provide information on refunds of the 2020 Budapest Annual Meeting registration fees paid. The practicalities of this will be made clear in a forthcoming statement which will be issued at the earliest opportunity.

In the meantime, we hope all our members stay as safe and well as possible, and continue their work and their research as best they can.

On behalf of all EAA members, we wish to acknowledge the amount of work undertaken by the Budapest local organising committee and their partners so far. We extend our heartfelt thanks and our solidarity to them, understanding the scale of the disappointment and the significance of their offer to continue the work of the 2020 Scientific Committee’s – and to consider doing it all again in 2022!

We see this crisis as a chance to explore new ways of coming together.

We will keep you informed!

On behalf of EAA Executive Board
Salud,

Felipe Criado-Boado
President of the EAA