In the two months since Covid-19 has begun to spread in Brazil, the Center has already held seven virtual events

By Sérgio Siscaro

CAM-CCBC has always had as one of its missions to stimulate the discussion and study of adequate dispute resolution mechanisms (ADRs) by promoting events gathering specialized speakers in several related areas.

With the new coronavirus pandemic and the movement restrictions resulting from social distancing, the Center quickly adapted its academic schedule to the virtual environment. Through webinars, debates take place digitally, safely and keeping their main advantages: the discussion of relevant topics and the possibility of interaction of the participants.

The seven webinars held between April and May (see the list below) not only allowed the continuity of CAM-CCBC events aimed at communities involved in ADRs, but also made it possible to increase the reach of these initiatives. “Webinars have been very successful, and, through them, we have managed to reach more people. The event Covid-19 and unpredictability, in which the Center’s President, Eleonora Coelho, participated alongside important Private Law authorities, had around 1,500 subscribers”, says CAM-CCBC Institutional Development Advisor, Lenora Hage.

She points out that the direct support of the Information Technology (IT) team facilitated the transition process of the events to the virtual environment. “Our IT team monitors all webinars and are fundamental in the organizing process of the events. Previous tests are also carried out with the speakers to test the functionalities of the digital platform and connection.” The videos are subsequently posted on the YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4zEYz-SC_EEBjiKS2Qj_Ng).

Social awareness

The webinars also enabled the Center to stimulate donations to social institutions – an essential initiative in a time like the present one. At the beginning of each free webinar, the work of a trustworthy institution is disclosed by a member of CAM-CCBC.

“We are very happy with the receptivity of the initiative. The institutions provide us feedback directly, stating that many donations were made. Aware of its social role, CAM-CCBC intends to continue with this and other attitudes of solidarity”, she points out.

New trend

According to Hage, the success of the experience has led the Center to adapt events that had been conceived as in-person for the digital environment. To this end, CAM-CCBC produced a new flow of internal operations, involving the IT, institutional development, marketing, and events teams, in addition to the management of the Center, to organize digital events – which should continue after the pandemic.

“We organized an international webinar that featured foreign speakers, and many institutions around the world are also organizing digital events. It is hard to predict the future, but certainly, online events have several advantages and should conquer more space gradually”, she adds.

Relevant content

Throughout April and May, the schedule of webinars promoted by the Center was quite broad and presented valuable content to the participants.

Some of the subjects debated related to the current situation, as in the webinar Online mediation, which tackled practical issues of online mediation; Covid-19 and unpredictability featured discussions on the contractual impacts of the pandemic in the Brazilian Law.

CAM-CCBC’s New Generation group of young lawyers also organized an event, tackling different perspectives of Covid and the ADRs; and personalities as Marike Paulsson and Stefan Kröll debated the Covid-19 and international arbitration in a fourth event.

The webinar Pandemic and infrastructure contracts featured renowned specialists, who discussed the impacts of the health crisis on these contracts. President Eleonora Coelho and Vice-President Rodrigo Garcia da Fonseca took part in another webinar, in which the debate concerned what will change for arbitration once the pandemic is over.

Finally, the first event programmed to be in-person and converted for the remote format was Responsibility of Administrator and Controlling Shareholder, promoted jointly with the Institute of Applied Corporate Law – IDSA.