Your Donations Save Lives

March 23, 2020

Dear EIPBN Community,

As the number COVID-19 cases in the United States increased this past week, health care workers sounded the alarm about shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE). Around the country, hospitals and medical centers are facing shortages of masks, surgical gowns, medical face shields, disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, and nitrile gloves, among other things. Many in our community have answered the call and have generously donated PPE’s to local hospitals, medical centers, and other health professionals. We on the EIPBN Steering Committee applaud these lifesaving efforts.

Our community has strong ties to all classes of cleanrooms, labs, and other specialized work environments and know that they carry a large inventory of PPE’s. Often, as typical with Tyvek suits, inventory can sit for months in unopened boxes reserved for backup, visitors, or maintenance work. We ask all our community to take stock of their PPE inventory and, if possible, donate what they can to help protect our medical professionals. The items most in need are familiar to all of us.

• Disposable head covers
• Disposable Gowns
• Disposable Gloves
• N95 respirator face masks
• Disposable face masks
• Face-shields/goggles
• Coveralls/scrubs
• Shoe-covers
• Disinfection wipes and liquids
• General-purpose hand cleaners

We all can do our share. While many have already donated, some understandably have been dealing with more pressing tasks. Check with your employer about donating and, if appropriate, encourage them to do so. There are many local and national organization that can help receive donations. Personal Protective Equipment for Health Professionals Fighting COVID-19 (link “Personal Protective Equipment for Health Professionals Fighting COVID-19” to https://www.donateppe.org) and America’s Frontline Healthcare Workers Treating COVID19 Patients (link America’s Frontline Healthcare Workers Treating COVID19 Patients” to https://findthemasks.com) are two great places to start.

We believe our community can make a difference. Be safe. Be healthy.

Warmest regards,

The EIPBN Steering Committee

2022 Conference Announcement

March 23, 2020

We are happy to announce that Rob and I will be returning to our roles as Program Chair and Conference Chair in 2022. We look forward to finding a venue and putting together a program that is every bit as good as we believe our New Orleans conference would have been.

Once again, thank you to our community for your patience and support during this crisis and we look forward to our reunion in 2021.

Warmest regards,

James Spallas, 2022 Conference Chair

Rob Ilic, 2022 Program Chair

EIPBN Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

March 20, 2020

We on the EIPBN Steering Committee sincerely hope that you and your families are safe and healthy. We have been closely monitoring the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation. It has become clear that moving forward with the 64th conference in New Orleans would not be safe. Therefore, we have decided to cancel the 2020 EIPBN Conference. Like many conferences and events, this will be the first time in our history that a 3-Beams conference is cancelled. Our Steering Committee has put in endless hours to create a fantastic program in the beautiful and historic city of New Orleans, and we all looked forward to joining together again with our friends and colleagues from around the world. We regret any inconvenience that this may cause.

Thank you to our generous sponsors and exhibitors whose support is so important to our conference. We have had the pleasure of working with many volunteers who have put in a lot of time and effort. We are grateful for their help and look forward to working with them on the 2021 conference. We sincerely thank our Plenary Speakers and Short Course Instructors for accepting our invitation to speak and teach this year in New Orleans. We are very lucky to be a part of a fantastic steering committee, and we thank our friends for their hard work and dedication.

We will be issuing full refunds for booth fees and sponsorships. Full refunds will also be issued to those who have registered for the conference. All refunds will be issued to the original form of payment in the next two weeks. For those of you who have already made reservation with the Sheraton, please contact the hotel to cancel your booking.

We now turn our attention to May 2021, and we look forward to seeing you all then. Gerald Lopez and Martha Sanchez are planning a fantastic conference. The 2021 venue, in accordance with long standing tradition, will be announced on May 28, 2020. We’ll keep our community updated as we work through this situation, so periodically check our website and lookout for email blasts.

We thank all of you for your continued support. Be safe. Be healthy.

Warmest regards,

James Spallas, 2020 Conference Chair

Rob Ilic, 2020 Program Chair