The Air Force Association announced May 4 that the annual Air, Space and Cyber Symposium will take place in September outside Washington, D.C., with planners watching COVID-19 pandemic developments closely.

The 2020 AFA symposium is scheduled for Sept. 14-16 in National Harbor, Maryland, with the theme of “Aerospace Nation: Air, Space & Cyber Forces in the Fight.” To date, it would be the first U.S. defense-related conference to take place in person since the global coronavirus spread has caused conferences to be canceled and postponed the world over, or be limited to webinar-style panel discussions instead. The Space Symposium, due to take place in March, rescheduled its annual conference to take place Oct. 31-Nov. 2 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

“The Air Force Association staff is carefully monitoring and assessing COVID-19 pandemic implications daily,” the association wrote in a Monday email. “We are currently planning to host ASC2020 as scheduled. We will contact all registered attendees immediately if the conference status changes, as well as post information on our website.”

Should the event be canceled, AFA will process full refunds for any confirmed registrations at the time of cancellation, minus any membership payments, the association noted.

The annual symposium will feature more than 35 sessions and technology displays from over 100 companies. Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett is already scheduled to deliver the opening keynote on September 14.

AFA’s annual Air Warfare Symposium is also on the schedule to be an in-person conference on Feb 24-26, 2021 in Orlando, Florida.