Optimism towards the end of last year that the pandemic was running its course, and that things would start returning to normal, have been thwarted by the emergency of the Omicron variant of COVID, and uncertainty continues around in-person events in 2022.
The first casualty of Omicron is the World Money Fair, which has been cancelled for the second year in a row to be replaced by an online version. The dates for this have been moved – to 23-28 February.
Organised by Dieter Merkle and Thomas Hogenkamp of Spaleck, the Technical Forum normally forms part of the World Money Fair. Last year it, too, went online, with a series of four webinars running over the course of four months. This year, it will be holding two sessions during the World Money Fair, on 23 and 24 February. There will be a maximum of 12 papers, divided over the two days, with a Q&A panel following each session.
Originally scheduled for South Africa in 2020, has been postponed until October 2023, when it will be hosted by the Royal Canadian Mint and held in Ottawa. The South African Mint-hosted event in Cape Town will take place in November 2024.
In the meantime, the dates have now been finalised for MDC Online, an all-virtual event which will take place 24-25 May. It will be arranged in four sessions over the two days. On 26 May will be an MDC internal affairs meeting. In total, the programme is likely to include up to 16 presentations, a series of Q&A sessions and panel discussions. Further details will be announced shortly.
The postponement or cancellation of events, and/or their move online, is not universal however, and some notable in-person conferences are still scheduled to go ahead this year.
A major industry event, that is taking place 21-24 February in Washington DC. The latest registration figures indicate an attendance upwards of 500. The focus of this event (a combination of the Banknote Conference and the Currency Conference) is primarily on cash usage and banknotes, but coins do appear on the agenda, not least in one of the workshops entitled ‘Circulating Coins – Intrinsic, Essential, Sustainable’.
This is due to take place 2-5 May in Barcelona. Again, its focus will be more on banknotes than coins, but its objective is to cover the entire cash cycle, so coins will be featured too.
And finally, normally taking place every second year (alternating with the MDC) it will take place in Amsterdam 26-28 September.
More information about each of the events can be found by clicking on the headings in this article.
