Dear professors and audience.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I would like to share with you some statistical data
and give thanks to everybody who made this event possible.
First of all, the IO2S-Deely brought together more than 100 personalities, who either
provided us with brilliant lectures and commentaries, or supported us with organizational
issues or heartedly chaired the sessions; all personalities involved come literally from all over
the world: Albania, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czechia, Egypt,
Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Portugal, Russia, Saudi
Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom,
the United States of America, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
We express our deepest gratitude to all of you who trusted in us and supported this event in
honor of John Deely; I am sure he is grateful to you.

I do not know if you remember, but this event did not start in 2022, but in 2021, with 2
preliminary events, two interviews that Tim Troutman and I conducted with Dr. Brian
Kemple and Dr. Farouk Y. Seif. Both interviews are recorded on YouTube, and each one got
more than 1000 views.
Exactly one year ago, we had our Opening Ceremony, in which, besides the presence of all
great professors, we counted on the participation of Dr. Brooke Williams. Since then, we
have had over 52 weeks of gatherings, full of insightful discussions.
As you already know, the seminars were divided into two modules, Historical Module: From
Early Latinity to the Last Postmodernity and Systematic Module: De-Sign or Semiotics in
Relation, and putting all seminars together, we have had over 60 lectures followed by an
equal number of group discussions.

Almost all these lectures are published online in open access for the prospective benefit of the
whole community, along with the comprehensive critical apparatus in both our homepage and
our auditorium, both of which are still being completed and will be soon available in a
definitive version; you can also access the lectures by the IEF’s YouTube Channel.

I also take this opportunity to thank the Organizing Committee, which is formed by 21
individuals coming from Albania, Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Japan, Portugal, Russia
Singapore, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Venezuela.
They are members affiliated with 12 institutions either of charity, research or higher
education, of public trust or private ownership, either of regional or international dimension.
I cannot help but express my gratitude to the Scientific Council and extend it to all the
lecturers and commentators whose effort, research and wisdom are making a great
contribution to semiotics in our current age and in the future.
Our utmost gratitude goes to the Board of Institutions, many of them being international in
nature. The 17 organizations that make up the Board of Institutions of the IO2S-Deely have
their headquarters or were established in Brazil, Denmark, France, Iran, Portugal, Russia,
Switzerland and the United States of America.

I will list them by name. The institutions that were behind this joint initiative are:

The IEF: Coimbra Institute for Philosophical Studies

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra

The Lyceum Institute

The Deely Project

The Saint Vincent College and Seminar

The Iranian Society for Phenomenology

The Iranian Political Science Association

The International Association for Semiotics of Space and Time

The Institute for Scientific Information on Social Sciences

The Russian Academy of Sciences

The Semiotic Society of America

The American Maritain Association

The International Association for Semiotic Studies (and here I take the opportunity to
personally thank Dr. Nacho Sigal, its vice-secretary general, for advertising our event, almost
every week, on the IASS website)

The International Society for Biosemiotic Studies

The International Center for Semiotics and Intercultural Dialogue

Moscow State Academic University for the Humanities

The Mansarda Acesa

For the institutional framework that enabled the planning of the IO2S Deely, another word of
appreciation goes to the FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., of the Ministry
of Science, Technology and Higher Education of the Government of Portugal.
I cannot forget the efforts of our chairs, who brilliantly hosted each session and beside that
also enriched this event with ideas and suggestions. Therefore, we express our gratitude to
Elma Berisha, Tim Troutman and Yulia Nikitenko.
A heartfelt and lasting token of gratitude goes to Professor Doctor Mário Santiago de
Carvalho for his role in formalizing the authorization for the beginning of our organizing
activities in May 2021.

Now, the breaking news: Dr. Farouk Seif, a few years ago, had access to the secret phone
number of John Deely in heaven, and Dr. Farouk kindly sent us his number, so that we would
be able to talk very briefly to Deely. He is very busy there talking to Aquinas and John of
Saint Thomas, but he asked us to be sure to thank everyone on an individual note, and we told
him that there was not enough time to name all of you. So, he told us we should at least say
hello to Brooke, his beloved wife, and also his dog Bruno.

It matters not if John is in Latrobe, on Mars, or in Heaven; in the same way in all cases, he is
related to us all for the rest of our lives, and perhaps for a longer time.
Thank you very much!