The year 2020 will be remembered as the time when many business processes were turned upside down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The process of organizing and hosting conferences was one of them. The 18th International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM 2020) was no exception. Under the leadership of the general chairs, Manuel Resinas and Antonio Ruiz Cortés, from University of Seville, Spain, BPM 2020 became the first edition in the BPM conference series to be held online.

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 12, 2020, just four days before the deadline for paper submissions. As many countries entered into lock-down, the BPM research community displayed an exemplary level of resilience and flexibility. Despite the disruptions caused by the lock-down, the conference received 138 full paper submissions, which is comparable to the number of submissions on a regular year.

人们将记住，2020年是由于COVID-19流感大流行，许多业务流程被颠倒过来的一年。组织和主办会议的过程就是其中之一。第18届业务流程管理国际会议（BPM 2020）也不例外。在西班牙塞维利亚大学的总主席Manuel Resinas和Antonio Ruiz Cortés的领导下，《BPM 2020》成为即将在线举行的BPM系列会议的第一版。

世界卫生组织于2020年3月12日宣布COVID-19为全球大流行，离论文提交截止日期只有4天。随着许多国家进入封锁期，BPM研究界展现出了一种堪称典范的恢复力和灵活性水平。尽管封锁造成了中断，但会议收到了138份完整的文件提交，这与每年提交的文件数量相当。