On July 10, BAFT announced that all scheduled in-person events through January 2021 will be offered as virtual events in light of global uncertainty surrounding COVID-19.
BAFT has continued to monitor the impact of COVID-19 globally, as well as solicit feedback from various members across different regions. Although some countries have started lifting restrictions, several have not, and some cities that started to ease restrictions have delayed further phased re-openings. Policies on travel vary by country and each institution.
The health and safety of our members, attendees, and other stakeholders have always been our primary concern. Given the levels of uncertainty, and with input from our regional councils, the BAFT Board of Directors has approved the recommendation to pivot all planned BAFT in-person events through January 2021 to virtual events.
The events affected are as follows:
| Event – Location | Original In-Person Dates | New Virtual Event Dates |
| Master Participation Agreement (MPA) Workshop – Dubai, UAE | August 31, 2020 | September 8 & 15, 2020 |
| MENA Bank to Bank Forum – Dubai, UAE | September 1 – 2, 2020 | September 2, 9 & 16, 2020 |
| Regional Bank Conference – Orlando, Florida | November 15, 2020 | October 19, 21 & 23, 2020 |
| Supply Chain Finance Workshop – Chicago, Illinois | November 4, 2020 | March 2021 |
| International Convention* – Orlando, Florida | November 15 – 18, 2020 | November 16 – 20, 2020 |
| Asia Bank to Bank Forum – Singapore | November 11, 2020 | TBD |
| Europe Bank to Bank Forum – Brussels, Belgium | January 11 – 13, 2021 | Virtual: January 12, 2021 In-Person: June 2021 |
* The North America Annual Meeting (Orlando) and the Annual Conference on International Trade (Chicago) were combined into the International Convention.
We are working with our various planning committees to offer you the same quality of conference programming you have come to expect from BAFT while optimizing digital channels to facilitate networking and breakout sessions. Through digital channel delivery, we hope that individuals that may have previously been restricted by travel costs will be able to participate in these BAFT programs. We will provide additional updates on each event as our virtual offerings develop.
For those who already registered for any of the above affected events, there is no action required from you. We will fully refund your registration and cancel your hotel room reservations at our event locations. However, if you reserved a room outside of our official conference hotels, you will need to cancel your booking. We appreciate your patience as we work through all the refunds and room cancellations during the next couple of weeks.
For sponsors of any of these events, our director of business development, Matthew Kaitz ([email protected]), will be in contact soon. We have a host of sponsorship opportunities available at our upcoming virtual events and are happy to discuss these options further with you.
BAFT is committed to continuing to provide you with excellent training, education, and event offerings regardless of the delivery mechanism. For questions on event updates, please check baft.org/our-events or email [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you soon.
