Hosting IOI 2019 Azerbaijan: Back to the Future

Abstract

Who would guess that the 31st International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) in Baku, Azerbaijan will be referred to as “the last normal” one for so long? While the IOI community looks forward to the upcoming onsite events, the readers may be interested in a retrospective report on the IOI 2019 from the host organizing, scientific and technical committees. This report covers the whole process throughout bidding, preparations, event days and closeout, shares some pain points and provides a number of practical recommendations. The authors hope that by looking back at the IOI 2019 Azerbaijan they will also help potential hosts of future IOIs.