The ITTC 2021 conference organized by the LHEEA (Centrale Nantes/CNRS) and DGA in virtual

ITTC is recognized as an NGO with observer status to IMO, the International Maritime Organization, where ITTC participates actively in matters regarding safety and performance.

The Full Conference, comprising representatives of all member organizations, is held every three years and constitutes the highest authority of the ITTC. The Executive Committee is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the ITTC, assisted by the Advisory Council on technical matters. A number of permanent and specialist technical committees perform defined work tasks between Full Conferences and report to the Full Conference. The venue of the Full Conference circulates between the six regions Americas, Northern Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, East Asia and Pacific Islands.

The 29th International Towing Tank Conference organized by the LHEEA (Centrale Nantes & CNRS research laboratory) & DGA Hydrodynamics from France. The ITTC conference was due to be held in September 2020 at Nantes in France. Due to the worldwide public health crisis, the conference was first postpone until spring 2021 and finally move online. Of course, this required changes to the conference format.
The conference was held in short question and answer sessions for each committee from June 14 to 18. Ahead of the live sessions, committee presentations were pre-recorded in full length, as for a standard conference, and available two weeks prior to the conference.

LHEEA & DGA Hydrodynamics had to take up the challenge of completely changing the format and had to abandon the social program (visit of the hydrodynamics research infrastructures and the Loire castles for examples). However, this edition still allowed all ITTC members to exchange on the progress of their research and nearly 250 people met on the online platform.