If we look on the bright side, 2020 allowed us to reinvent activities and explore new ways to network, communicate and connect across our membership and beyond. Most of our meetings moved online, our members hosted significant national and regional digital talks and our whole international community stayed united thanks to technology. But we did miss not meeting face to face and it was therefore time for us to reinvent international gathering. 

On 1-2 October 2020, we invited the global performing arts sector to our very first Multi-location Plenary Meeting, which combined participation in both online and physical activities in more than twenty different locations in the world.

In other words, participants were able to travel to a physical meeting hosted by an IETM member on the one hand, and to benefit from both our digital content and an exciting on-site programme surrounded by their peers on the other hand! Moreover, some of the local sessions were live-streamed or held online so that participants who were only attending the online programme were able to digitally travel from one location to the other in real time.

In accordance with our on-going Rewiring the Network trajectory, we asked the sector and the rest of the world a simple question: What matters now? This humble yet relevant theme allowed us to speak out and listen; to look at ourselves and open up to the world; to keep going and be subject to change. IETM Multi-location 2020 was an opportunity for us to reconnect in person, to go back to the roots of our network, and to collectively reclaim our pivotal place in designing a better future in a healing world.

Registrations for this event closed on 30 September.

Image in banner: ©️ Derek Thomson