Congress Postponed, COVID Impact, and Contest Deadlines
By Elaine Shein, International Committee Chair
Anyone who has ever been involved with putting on a national or international conference knows how tough it can be, including approaching sponsors, planning speakers, arranging panels and meals, coordinating tours, etc.
Now, imagine trying to plan it over and over … and over again.
Denmark originally had planned to host the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists Annual Congress in June 2020. Because of COVID-19’s big impact on the world, the Congress was postponed to June 2021.
At first it seemed the timing would work. During 2020, the Australian guild decided to withdraw its offer to host the 2021 IFAJ Congress because of the impact of the pandemic as well as wildfires on the country.
But as the pandemic stretched on, Denmark decided to move its Congress to the fall of 2021.
Now, however, Denmark’s organizing committee for the Congress recently announced it plans to move the event to June 27 to July 3 of 2022. The Danes still are eager to host the world and promise it will be a great — and safe — event.
The Danish guild approached the other countries that were originally scheduled to host future IFAJ Congresses to see if they would agree to schedule changes. They did. Tentatively, the future Congresses now are: Canada (2023), Switzerland (2024), Israel (2025), Kenya (2026) and Croatia (2027).
The new line-up was formally adopted during the IFAJ Executive Meeting held Jan. 27.
IFAJ eCONGRESS
During the same executive meeting, it was announced there will be an IFAJ eCongress for this year on June 21-23. This will includes speakers, panels, professional development sessions, the IFAJ delegate assembly, the presentation of Star Prize winners and a social hour. More details will be released closer to the event.
Besides the eCongress, IFAJ continues to look for ways to serve its more than 5,000 members in more than 55 countries. This can be challenging when the world is faced with a pandemic.
As IFAJ President Lena Johansson said in her opening remarks in the IFAJ Executive Meeting, this has been an extreme year, not what we expected. “What was dramatic a year ago has become part of our daily life.” However, she added that new technology has helped us continue. Imagine if this would have happened 25 years ago; it would have been impossible to hold meetings and keep in touch.
OTHER WAYS TO CONNECT
IFAJ has several ways for members to connect; this includes an IFAJ Zoom account we can use for our guilds or IFAJ-related events; a quarterly newsletter that is now being translated into several languages that can be sent to our individual members; our IFAJ website and Facebook site; and a recently launched IFAJ Portal that has many exciting opportunities for our members. IFAJ Vice President Steve Werblow will be writing in our Byline newsletter separately on that — you can register for it here.
This year, in another virtual event, we are planning to have a Young Leaders Master Class eBootcamp, with sponsors Alltech and Corteva Agriscience on board for that program which provides professional development, leadership training and networking opportunities to agricultural journalists from developing countries.
IFAJ is always looking for new topics and speakers for webinars, etc.
BUDGET UPDATE
While some programs are going forward, COVID-19 is affecting IFAJ’s budget this year as there have been a cut in revenues raised from sponsorships, the annual Congress and other events.
IFAJ Treasurer Adrian Bell told the IFAJ Executive Meeting he had to redraw the budget quite drastically: while budgeted income for 2020 was 121,000 euros ($146,000), the final income was approximately 28,600 euros ($34,500). The biggest hit came with the loss of all sponsorships last year, along with loss of donations and direct income from sources. There also are some outstanding membership fees at this point.
As for expenditures in 2020, IFAJ considerably cut down on expenses — including travel, Presidium expenses, and meeting expenses — but still expects a deficit of just under 10,000 euros. Bell said IFAJ had hoped to make a small surplus. He remains optimistic for 2021, adding there is hope to attract sponsorships for the Star Prize and other awards that are going ahead this year, as well as for some of the organization’s virtual events. He added that he is hopeful long-term supporters will see fit to support IFAJ and rebuild its income, and is budgeting in 2021 that the organization will show a surplus on the bottom line.
CONTEST DEADLINES APPROACHING
As mentioned, the IFAJ is currently accepting entries for its Star Prize awards contest recognizing the world’s best ag journalism. The deadline is Feb. 19 and full rules can be found here. Please note that in some categories, the guild (in our case, AAEA) is only allowed to enter one entry (ex. print and broadcast categories) which will be determined from winning entries in the most recent AAEA Awards Competition that meet the criteria.
For photography, individual members may enter the three categories: People, Production and Nature/Landscape/Rural Scenes. It would be great to see more entries from our members! Full contest details and submission forms for photography can be found here.
There is a lot more IFAJ news to share; stay tuned for future Byline stories for more information.