"The Presidium, Board and Management of the BVL decided this this morning under the impression of the worsening corona situation," writes the federal association. And further: "Out of responsibility for the health of all those involved, the top committees of the BVL have now decided, after intensive consultations, to cancel the face-to-face event in Berlin. The majority of the content of the congress will be offered as a purely digital format next week, with further parts to follow as webinars. The exhibition and networking events have been completely canceled."

"With the previously planned mixture of analog and digital congress format, we wanted to send a signal of courage and confidence and offer decision-makers in the logistics sector a platform for personal exchange in this difficult year," said Prof. Thomas Wimmer, Chairman of the BVL Board of Management. According to the BVL, the booking situation up until last weekend proved the BVL right: "In addition to the program, a comprehensive hygiene concept was also convincing". Since then, however, the association has sensed "uncertainty among participants, exhibitors, sponsors and also some service providers who were to be involved in the congress".

"The coronavirus development is worrying many people. The situation is therefore completely different today than it was in the summer, when the BVL committees decided to hold the congress from October 21 to 23, 2020 as a "hybrid" event with a high proportion of on-site attendance," says Wimmer. He added that the BVL's Executive Board and management regret the cancellation of the in-person event: the BVL's Executive Board and management "would like to thank all exhibitors, sponsors and participants who had planned to take part in Berlin". BVL will therefore "contact all affected partners and customers directly at short notice".

The BVL's position on the implementation of the DLK from October 6 ("Challenge accepted: Maximum health protection at the German Logistics Congress 2020") can be found here (external link).

In a recent survey conducted by http://www.materialfluss.de, over 60 percent of respondents were against attending the physical event.