The rate of global Covid-19 transmissions continues to rise, with the pandemic expected to worsen over the coming weeks. Concerns for safety and continued restrictions on travel has put the rescheduled ALMU Annual Meeting & Global Leadership Summit, planned for 31 August – 2 September 2020 in Bangkok, at significant risk.

This month, we conducted an extensive survey of event sponsors, speakers and participants of the ALMU Annual Meeting, and the co-located F+L Week, in order to solicit feedback on a further postponement to either November 2020 or March 2021.

Survey Results
A significant majority (73%) of respondents preferred that this year’s event be postponed to March 2021. A quarter of those who replied to the survey cited ongoing company travel restrictions. Most preferred the option of an in-person event, rather than a virtual summit. These results are aligned with feedback from F+L Week sponsors, speakers, and participants.

Although Thailand has been relatively successful in its virus containment efforts, in light of the continuing global coronavirus threat, and after careful consideration of the concerns outlined by our stakeholders, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the 2nd Annual Meeting & Global Leadership Summit until 2021.

Postponing the event will help mitigate the risk of transmission of the virus within our community and allow us to ensure a successful event at a time when the impact of travel restrictions will, hopefully, have diminished.

• The Annual Meeting will now be held from 8-10 March 2021.
• The ALMU Technical Course on Industrial Oils & Fluids will be held on 8 March 2021.
• The ALMU Subcommittee Meetings will be held on 8 March 2021.
• The ALMU Annual Meeting and Global Leadership Summit will be held on 9-10 March 2021.
• The Annual General Membership Meeting will be held from 9-10 am on 10 March 2021 and is open to all members of ALMU.

Conference Theme: Sustainability of Lubricants
The theme for the ALMU Annual Meeting & Global Leadership Summit is “Sustainability of Lubricants”. Sustainability will continue to be a major push for the global lubricant industry and ALMU in the coming years, amid increasing calls for a post-Covid-19 recovery that focuses on building a more sustainable future. At next year’s Annual Meeting you will hear world experts discuss how our industry is responding to the challenge of sustainability in a post-Covid world.