Aloha SMM Community-

One of my responsibilities for the Society is to bring to the membership options for the venue for our 2023 Biennial (as a reminder 2021 will be in Florida). As we have in the past, we are reaching out to the membership to engage with groups who may wish to host the conference in their region. This challenging but important honor is vital to our scientific, conservation and educational mission, so we hope several groups will step up to the opportunity.

We are open to hear from any geographic location, but are especially interested in venues outside of North America. We would also strongly encourage expressions of interest from regions/countries that have not previously hosted the conference. For a list of past conference locations, follow this link.

We will simultaneously be exploring venue options through our contracted conference organizing company. This might allow us to find a more cost effective location, but would require organizing and scientific committees to work remotely from the site with occasional travel to the venue. So if your group is interested in hosting a conference, but do not happen to be around facilities that could support it, this could be an opportunity for you.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions about this opportunity or what hosting the conference entails at president-elect@marinemammalscience.org. It is hard work but there is a lot of support from the Society and previous conference organizers. Our Society benefits from having several choices and these efforts are focused on finding the most cost effective model for holding a conference to ensure it is as accessible as possible to our entire membership.

I would like to receive expressions of interest by Friday August 23 so that there is sufficient time to work with each group in the lead up to the conference. Conference venues will be presented and voted on by the membership at the closing members meeting in December.

Thanks in advance to everyone who considers this opportunity/request

Charles Littnan, PhD.
SMM President-Elect
president-elect@marinemammalscience.org