One of the year’s largest food safety conferences is now planned to be a virtual event, according to an announcement from the organizers of the Food Safety Summit.

The event, annually set in the first week of May, was postponed earlier this year because of the coronavirus outbreak. It was rescheduled for Oct. 19-22 in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, IL. Yesterday, however, the organizers said the COVID-19 pandemic offered too many chances for infections at an in-person event.

“Given the continued uncertainty around travel and the importance of health and safety for the entire food safety community, the difficult decision has been made to transition the upcoming in-person Food Safety Summit event in Rosemont, IL, to a fully virtual event Oct. 19-22, 2020,” said Scott Wolters, CEO of BNP Media, producers of the Summit.

The Summit is set to start with a session on “COVID-19: The New Normal for the Food Industry.” The four-day event will offer educational sessions along with presentations from exhibitors in the Solutions Stage and Tech Tent as well as networking with attendees.

The educational portions of the summit are planned to offer four two-hour workshops and 21 one-hour sessions. Four general sessions are on the agends. They include the keynote presentation by Will Daniels, president of produce division, IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group, who will discuss “Back to Basics: Consumer Focused Food Safety.” In addition, the Summit’s annual “Town Hall” discussion with leaders from the FDA, AFDO, CDC and USDA and a general session focused on “Foodborne Illness Outbreak Mock Criminal Trial – A View from the Jury Box” featuring Shawn Stevens, Food Industry Counsel LLC, will be offered.

Daily, from noon to 2:30 p.m. CDT, the virtual exhibit hall will be open.  Attendees will have the opportunity to attend live sessions from the Solutions Stage and hear from technology companies in Tech Tent presentations. From 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. CDT the education and networking will continue. BNP Media is working with virtual events platform Intrado to deliver this learning experience.

Those who wish to only participate in the virtual exhibit hall and the general session each day can attend for free. All current Summit attendee registrations will be moved over to the virtual Food Safety Summit. Event organizers will contact those registered attendees with more information.

The virtual Summit is $299 to attend with the early bird rate, which expires on Aug. 31. Those who pay to attend the summit will have complete access to the entire platform, including virtual exhibit booths, all live and on-demand education sessions, the ability to participate in group discussions and networking events with colleagues and speakers.