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ICoD COVID-19 protocols announced

13.03.2020 Announcements

13 March 2020 - During the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis, the International Council of Design (ico-D) is implementing measures to continue our activities and serve our membership while considering the welfare of our staff and community. In light of rapidly changing circumstances and a lack of clear information, this is quite a challenge — a challenge we know is shared with our entire community.

First, the Council would like to convey best wishes of safety and good health to all members of our community and hope that we will all return to normal as quickly as possible.

As an international organisation, we recognise that various countries have been affected and are responding differently. Poignantly, this experience accentuates how much we all have in common and how we share circumstances related to our increasingly interconnected and fragile planet.

Council activities and projects are international in scope, reaching all continents, and featuring frequent physical meetings and international events. In the present circumstances, with "social distancing" a primary tool with which to suppress the spread of the virus, such meetings are plainly not possible. It is not clear how long this situation will last.

In order to establish a basis for action based on the best information we can gather, we have instituted the following policies:

For the near future (minimum of six months), all currently underway plans for physical meetings (ico-D Board Meetings, General Meetings, Regional Meetings, Special Meetings, etc.) are frozen. The ico-D Executive Board will review the situation as developments permit.

The resumption of scheduling of new events will be considered for the first quarter of 2021, and the scheduling of future international events starting for the second quarter of 2021. As ico-D events require a long lead time to plan, recruit and register participants, sufficient time is necessary to establish whether the situation is safe for participants to travel and plan events. This timeline will be amended as new information is available.

Travel of individual ico-D representatives will be restricted to a minimum and treated on a case-by-case basis.

The focus of the ico-D Secretariat and Board for the foreseeable future will be on those projects and services to Members that can be conducted and shared digitally.

The ico-D Executive Board is now reviewing alternatives and re-allocating resources.

It is the aim of the Council to be in a position to resume normal activity and enhanced provision of value as soon as the situation permits. We are monitoring the situation closely.

In order to better understand the implications of the COVID-19 transmission and propagation and efforts of containment, we suggest the following links:

The International Council of Design would like to convey our sincere wishes of good health to the international design community, especially those that have been affected more acutely. These challenges are shared by us all and will require rapid and decisive measures to stem.