Centennial Session and e-session announced

CIGRE announces a reorganisation of its 2020 signature Paris event into a digital e-session in 2020. Our planned in person August 2020 event offering 'the leading global event for sharing power system expertise' is now scheduled for August 2021 as a special Centennial Session, with similar format as previous Sessions (e.g., plenaries, tutorials, poster sessions, technical exhibition).

CIGRE, formed in 1921, will celebrate its 100th Anniversary in 2021 with this Centennial celebration held at our Palais des Congrès venue in Paris, France in August.

For our e-session 2020, in late August and early September, CIGRE will offer critical content from the 2020 Session digitally as part of our CIGRE Academy. At a time when professionals need access to the latest thinking from our worldwide community, we consider this e-session vital. We will use our successful CIGRE Academy webinar technology to deliver this timely event in digital format.

From an historical perspective, our great family of CIGRE endured a Session in 1939 whereby “heavy storm clouds already threatened the world.” [Quotes from 1946 Opening Session by Ernest Mercier, the President of CIGRE from 1933 to 1948]. “They burst with the implacable fury of a world-wide cataclysm.”

For CIGRE’s 25th Anniversary, delegates called for a great Paris Session in 1946. President Mercier continued…

“you have eloquently answered by easily beating all your previous records, for today there are 950 (delegates) registered, thus showing your impatience to resume those trusting and warm contacts of which you had established the tradition, like the members of a single great family dispersed all over the globe.”

With current storm clouds from pandemic beginning to clear in 2021, it is in this tradition we will mark our Centennial with a once in a lifetime event. We mourn those who have been impacted by this deadly Covid-19 pandemic, but CIGRE must endure as the foundation for power systems world-wide. We call on all of our community and the wider industry to join us for this seminal event.

In late April / early May, linked from this page we will be releasing more details on the 2020 e-session and the 2021 Centennial Session. Then ultimately, full programme details will follow on session.cigre.org and cigre.org

The detail will include an overview of content, options for those who have registered for 2020, and special offers for registering for both the 2020 and 2021 Sessions. We will also outline the plans and background thinking for future Sessions.

Our great family of CIGRE offers our good wishes for everyone in these troubled times.

Download the press release