Dear ECCO IBD Community,                             
Dear ECCO Friends,

As you know, we were aiming to organise the ECCO Congress on February 16–19, 2022 in Vienna as the first physical international IBD conference since ECCO 2020.
    
The pandemic situation has unfortunately aggravated due to the Omicron variant, and despite the strong desire for a physical reunion of the ECCO family, we decided to change to a fully virtual congress. The date of the educational and the scientific programme remains unchanged.

We believe that this decision is the right one considering the health and safety of delegates, speakers, industry representatives and staff members.

The long-lasting pandemic means increased workload and high pressure for the hospitals where our speakers and delegates are employed. With changing to a virtual format, it will be possible for all interested IBD experts to participate at ECCO´22 without worries about travel difficulties and the risk of an infection.

The goal of the congress is to provide a cutting-edge programme with the newest insights in the world of IBD, keeping in mind the interest of the patients and we are convinced that in these circumstances this goal can be safeguarded only with a virtual congress.

The virtual experience of ECCO´22

You are most probably familiar with the Virtual Congress Platform we have introduced for ECCO´21 Virtual. The same platform will be used for ECCO´22 with updated design and some minor adaptations.

All talks of the Educational Programme and the Scientific Programme will be live transmitted with the possibility to ask questions and both will be recorded for on-demand viewing. The posters will be featured at the e-poster section and the virtual ECCO Booth will provide updates about ECCO initiatives. Pharmaceutical companies can decide to be present at the virtual exhibition.

The platform will be accessible 24/7 and it will remain available until the end of May. Until then all registered delegates can access the content of the platform, watch the sessions on-demand and visit the e-Poster and industry exhibition.

In conclusion, we thank you for your understanding for the adaptation of the congress format.

We look forward to welcome you virtually at ECCO´22.

Yours sincerely,
Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet
ECCO President 2020-2023

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