The European Economic Association welcomes you to its 35th congress, and its 1st virtual one.
Whilst we were all very excited to be hosted by our colleagues at ERASMUS School of Economics for our "in-person" congress and spend time exploring this modern port city, the global challenges of COVID-19 forced us to reconsider. Our initial disappointment turned to excitement after announcing the news that EEA 2020 would be a virtual one, as we realised that we had the support of our members, who have embarked on this adventure of exploring new modes of interaction with us. We have developed our own virtual congress platform – fondly nick-named EEAflix - that will allow us to expand our online initiatives in the future, and reach out to people who for a number of reasons may not always be able to join us in our in-person events. We hope that you have fun exploring this platform and enjoy virtually networking, both professionally and socially.
To access all the networking areas, and the scientific sessions, you are asked to log in to the platform (on the top right-hand side of website). Your log in email is your EEA membership access email. If you have any queries, please email congress@eeassoc.org
THANKS
Each year, a lot of work goes into planning for our annual congress, and then implementing the plan as well as possible requires further major efforts. Our experience with these meetings has been a string of near-perfection events, in important parts thanks to all the time devoted by past years' organizing committees. This time, however, the congress has taken the organizational challenges to another level. Would there be a conference at all, or would we go virtual? And if we go virtual, how is as large a conference as this one to be carried out? There was no blueprint or past recipe to fall back on. At the time of formulating the present thank-you note, we are extremely happy and excited about our upcoming conference; not only do we think that we could meet all the challenges that were apparent, but it seems that many obstacles have been overcome and, most importantly, that our virtual format has given rise to new ideas and formats for interaction. Needless to say, however, we do not expect a perfect conference - how could a first ever virtual large event be perfect? But we are very much looking forward to experiencing it and learning from it. We are as ready as we can be.
So how did we get to this point? Many people have dedicated significant amounts of time over the past few months and worked endlessly to make the virtual congress happen. We owe very special thanks to the scientific committee – led by Katrine V. Løken and Vasco M. Carvalho - who performed amazingly and stuck to the tightest deadlines. The ERASMUS School of Economics have continued to accompany us on this virtual journey, particularly its local organizing committee, chaired by Philip Hans Franses and coordinated by Marije Stofregen, and we are ever-grateful to them. Thanks also to all the students of ERASMUS who are acting to our ZOOM “Room Managers” and are ensuring that the scientific sessions of EEA Virtual 2020 will go smoothly for all of us. However, we would simply have no conference at all, were it not for the efforts of Gemma Prunner-Thomas, our General Manager of the EEA. She has not only been the heart and soul of this conference, but of our successful path events as well - and more generally, the EEA would simply not be what it is today without her. It's not just all the contributions she makes - from details to the big picture - but the joy we all experience in interacting with her, even during these difficult times. So, thank you, thank you Gemma! Lastly, we thank all of you, our participants, for your support and presence at the EEA Virtual 2020 - so let's now have a great conference in "Rotterdam"!
EEA Virtual Working Group
Per Krusell (EEA President)
Silvana Tenreyro (EEA President-Elect)
Oriana Bandiera (EEA Vice President)
Antonio Cabrales (EEA Executive Vice-President)