Last update: 26 May 2020
I consider both the United Kingdom and New Zealand to be my “home countries” with significant personal and professional ties in both countries. Throughout my career, although I’ve always been domiciled in one place or the other, I’ve been consistently engaged with work and organisations in both countries, and have enjoyed the freedoms of dual citizenship allowing me to work and travel between the two. For most years since 2013, I’ve spent some time each year in both countries. When developing my plans for 2020, I did so on the assumption of being able to continue to travel freely between the two, with my plan being to spend much of July 2020 in the UK. Due to the current global situation, I am anticipating that I will have to remain in New Zealand for some time before being in a position to travel internationally again. I will do my best to mitigate the impact of this on my work, and will keep this page updated with developments.
Travel Plans and Border Restrictions
Unavoidably, the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in many countries imposing strict border restrictions. New Zealand has imposed strict mandatory government quarantine on all arrivals into New Zealand, meaning that if I was to undertake international travel at the present time, upon return to New Zealand I would have to enter quarantine for 14 days. This significantly increases the length of an international trip. Additionally, Australia is requiring quarantine for 14 days upon arrival, meaning that a trip to Australia at the current time would require a total of 28 days of quarantine, making such a trip non-viable. The United Kingdom is also imposing border restrictions from June. Furthermore, my planned flights to the UK are no longer being operated by the airline.
Here’s the status of my work trips currently planned for 2020 – this will be updated as new info becomes available. At this stage, I will not be planning any additional work-related trips for 2020 until such time that it is likely that travel will be able to proceed as planned.
28-30 March 2020, Wellington, New Zealand – Cancelled. This trip will likely occur between late October and early December.
28-29 April 2020, Auckland, New Zealand – Cancelled. This meeting will take place via teleconference instead.
8-12 May 2020, Melbourne, Australia – Cancelled. This trip has been postponed until rescheduling of the ACLAPA conference.
9-26 July 2020, London & Bristol, United Kingdom – Cancelled. This trip has been postponed, and a postponement date will be announced once border restrictions are removed both in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Conferences
All the conferences I was scheduled to present at in 2020, have been postponed.
ACLAPA Conference – Melbourne, Australia (8-10 May 2020) – Awaiting postponement date.
Appearance Matters 9 Conference – Bath, United Kingdom (14-16 July 2020) – postponed to 13-15 July 2021.
NZSTA Conference – Christchurch, New Zealand (31 August-2 September 2020) – postponed to 30 August-1 September 2021.
CLAPA Adult Services Project
COVID-19’s severe impact on travel, and likely impact on day-to-day life in the UK for some time to come will inevitably impact this project. Despite the additional challenges, I remain totally committed to finishing what I started, and returning to the UK to perform the bits of the project that need to be done from physically in the UK once restrictions are eased. The latest updates on the project are available here.
A video update on the impact of COVID-19 on the project is also available below:
KennyArdouin.com 