We moved Startup Iceland usually held at the end of May beginning of June to October of this year due to the challenges posted by COVID-19. We wanted to see how things evolved after the summer and it looks like Iceland is starting the second wave of COVID and last week the Government of Iceland reinstated more instringent measures of

No gathering of more than 100 people

All individuals need to maintain a 2 meter social distancing

In places where the 2 meter social distancing is not possible everyone needs to wear a mask

We decided that it is best to reschedule Startup Iceland to 2021 during the regular time of programming in the end of May. All those who bought their early bird tickets should have received their full refund. Since we have always run Startup Iceland as a bootstrapped event the financial and economic impact is minimal. We want to thank all sponsors for their continued support of Startup Iceland. Our intention is to do a bigger and better event next year when we have more clarity on the risks of gatherings.

We have hosted Startup Iceland for 8 years and this would have been the 9th year. We made the decision to reschedule after a lot of deliberation. Startup Iceland was founded on the premise that people need to meet face to face and break bread together to build lasting relationships. It was meant to be a social event to empower and inspire founders and those in the Startup Community. Social events do not work with social distancing, also it puts too much risk and burden on everyone to regulate and manage. We think it is best that we take 2020 off and do our part to mitigate the risk of spread of COVID. We also want to give the COVID responses by countries and health care professionals more time.

We know of a number of founders and agencies working on the vaccine and response to the pandemic. We are confident that we will have a better path as we take time to evaluate and decide on the next Startup Iceland event.