Due to current coronavirus developments in Europe, the Institute for Plastics Processing at RWTH Aachen University (IKV, Aachen / Germany; www.ikv-aachen.de) decided on 2 March to postpone the “30th International Colloquium Plastics Technology” in Aachen. Originally planned for 11-12 March 2020, the event is now scheduled to take place on 9 and 10 September 2020. The “International Symposium on Plastics Technology” originally planned for 10 March in conjunction with the colloquium, has been rescheduled to 8 September 2020.

The management of the IKV and the board of the IKV association of sponsors take the developments with the coronavirus very seriously, according to reports from Aachen. On the basis of the information currently available, the decision was made to not take any risks. The organisers state that the postponement of the two events, for which around 800 international participants were expected, is “purely preventative”.

All tickets for participants remain valid for the announced alternate dates. Those who do not wish to attend on the new date may cancel their booking free of charge until 16 March 2020.

In recent days, there have been numerous cancellations for major industry meetings and trade fairs in Europe. Arburg recently cancelled its “International Technology Days” (see Plasteurope.com of 02.03.2020) and the world's leading trade fair for composites, the “JEC World 2020”, which was slated to open its doors in Paris on 3 March, was also postponed at short notice (see Plasteurope.com of 27.02.2020).

However, VDI-Wissensforum (Düsseldorf / Germany; www.vdi-wissensforum.de) still plans to host its “Plastics in Automotive Engineering” (PIAE) conference in Mannheim / Germany. A spokesperson confirmed this to Plasteurope.com, but the qualifier was added that one would of course respond to measures taken by Mannheim’s city administration, should it come to that. There are several confirmed cases of coronavirus in the city. The individuals are in quarantine. The spokesperson of the responsible health department could not be reached at press time, but according to the most recent reports, the city’s administration sees “no reason to close facilities or cancel events”.

The same applies to the “Fakuma” 2020 trade fair scheduled for 13 to 17 October (www.fakuma-messe.de), for which no change in schedule has been considered so far. As trade fair organiser P.E. Schall (Frickenhausen / Germany; www.schall-messen.de) recently said, the company is in constant contact with the site operators and local health authorities with regard to the coronavirus. The positive news from Frickenhausen: “At this time, all our events will take place. The authorities currently see no reason to restrict trade fair operations.”