2027 Conference

IOTA’s third mega-conference will take place in Poti and Kobuleti, Republic of Georgia, in January 2027. On 17 January 2027, the Opening Day of the conference, the major events will take place in Poti. All conference sessions of the subsequent working days of the conference (18-20 January 2027) will take place at the Georgia Palace Hotel in Kobuleti (not in Poti). All conference attendees are advised to arrive to Georgia on 16 January and to depart on 22 January 2027. 300+ speakers from over forty countries are expected to participate. The overarching theme of the conference is “Tradition and Traditions”.

The keynote address will be given by Rev. Prof. John Behr, Regius Chair in Humanity at the University of Aberdeen, UK.

IOTA Membership and Conference Registration are required for all conference attendees. To become a member or renew your membership, visit this page.

Visa Requirements

Please visit the Georgian Embassy page in your country of citizenship in order to verify if you need a visa to travel to the Republic of Georgia. If you need a visa, an invitation letter in support of your visa application can be obtained from the conference Site Chair, Prof. Giorgi Khuroshvili at [email protected].

Air Travel to/ from Conference

Participants traveling from the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia, and other overseas locations are advised to arrive to the Batumi International Airport via Istanbul. (Istanbul – Batumi flight duration: 2h 10m.). In addition, direct flights to Batumi International Airport are available from Moscow, Minsk, St. Petersburg, and Tel Aviv.

Participants traveling from EU member states are advised to arrive to Kutaisi International Airport, which currently provides direct connections from the following cities: Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Dortmund, Thessaloniki, Athens, Larnaca, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Lyon, Brussels, Rome, Milan, Vienna, Budapest, Warsaw, Wrocław, Prague, Tallinn, Vilnius. It is also possible to arrive at Kutaisi International Airport via a transfer in Istanbul.

Airport Transfers

New Georgian University will arrange bus transportation for participants from the Batumi and Kutaisi airports to Kobuleti and back on January 16 and 22. Participants will be organized into groups according to their scheduled arrival times, based on prior registration and submitted lists.

The registration for the bus transfers will become available on 15 December 2026 and will remain open for submissions until 10 January 2027.

Note: If you are planning to arrive or depart from Tbilisi, note that the trip from Tbilisi to Kobuleti takes 5 hours by train. No transfers from/ to Tbilisi will be provided by the conference.

Conference Housing

All conference sessions on 18-20 January 2027 will take place at the headquarters hotel, which is Georgia Palace Hotel Resort and Spa in Kobuleti. Note that the hotel is located in Kobuleti and not in Poti, where the opening day events will take place. The address of the hotel is Georgia Palace Hotel Resort and Spa, 275 Aghmashenebeli Ave., Kobuleti, Georgia. A limited number of sleeping rooms will be available at this hotel on the first come, first served basis. The conference registration includes a significant discount on the hotel room rate. This steeply discounted rate is $65 per person per night (single room, includes breakfast) and $85 for two persons per night (double room, includes breakfast for two). The rate is applicable to the hotel stay before and after the conference. We recommend that you arrive on the 16th and depart on the 22nd of January 2027. In order to make a room reservation at a discounted rate, become an IOTA member, register for the conference, and then contact [email protected] with a copy (cc:) to [email protected]. Include IOTA 2027 in the subject line of your email. The rooms will be available on a first come, first served basis.

The information regarding other hotel options will be posted in August 2026.

Excursion on 21 January 2027

The conference will conclude with the evening reception on 20 January 2027. On the following day, 21 January 2027, all registered attendees are invited to join a day-long excursion featuring Georgia’s most significant spiritual sites. We will visit the Bagrati Cathedral (eleventh century) and Motsameta Monastery (eleventh century). The trip will start at 9:00 am (subject to change; follow the announcement to be made on the last working day of the conference) from the lobby of the Georgia Palace Hotel in Kobuleti. The bus drive to the first site will take approximately two hours; the length of the drive between each site is approximately 30 minutes. The excursion cost of Euro 55 per person includes a brown bag lunch and a dinner. The cost of this optional excursion is not included in the conference registration fee. We are looking forward to seeing all conference participants at the excursion.

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Travel Grants

A limited number of travel grants will be made available for IOTA Future Leaders and emerging scholars. These grants will be awarded through a grant competition, which will start in August 2026. All IOTA Future Leaders who participate in the conference will be expected to attend the Georgian Winter Institute (GWI). For updates, subscribe to our newsletters here.

Travel Expenses

All participants, including invited speakers, are expected to cover their own conference travel expenses, including IOTA membership, conference registration, airfare and ground transportation, lodging and meals. The registration fee covers less than 20% of the conference costs, with the remaining 80% of the costs to be covered by our generous hosts, New Georgian University and the Diocese of Poti and Khobi, as well as IOTA’s benefactors.