Antec 2020 has become one of the last remaining plastics industry conferences scheduled for spring to be canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak, as the Society of Plastics Engineers moves its annual conference to a virtual event.
SPE President Brian Landes sent a letter to SPE councilors at the end of day March 12 saying that escalating concern about COVID-19 makes holding the conference impossible. Antec was set for March 29-April 2 in San Antonio. Antec is the SPE's biggest annual event, and would have been the largest U.S. plastics gathering this year.
However, Antec 2020: The Virtual Edition, will go on.
"Antec is the premier knowledge-sharing and networking event for the plastics industry," Landes wrote in the letter. "So even though corporate travel bans and social-distancing requirements have made the networking part of Antec impossible, the knowledge-sharing will go on!"
The virtual Antec will open March 30. SPE will release more details over the following days, Landes said in the letter. SPE also will host an online council meeting on March 27.
SPE is based in Danbury, Conn.