Due to continued concerns for the health and safety of its members, industry partners, volunteer leaders, staff and other stakeholders during the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Society of Association Executives will continue to hold its events virtually through February 2021.

This decision means that all ASAE events including the CEO Symposium programs scheduled in January and February; an Exceptional Boards program in January and ASAE’s Great Ideas Conference, which was scheduled to take place Feb. 21-23 in Salt Lake City, will be held online. The next in-person edition of Great Ideas will take place Feb. 24-26, 2022 at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City.

According to ASAE officials, the association is planning to take a hybrid approach with its larger meetings taking place later in 2021, including the 2021 Marketing, Membership, & Communications Conference, scheduled to take place June 2-3 in Washington, DC, and the 2021 ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition, planned for Aug. 14-17 in Dallas, Texas.

“ASAE is making the decision now to convert to virtual or reschedule in-person meetings and conferences through February so that our community can plan accordingly,” explained Susan Robertson, ASAE president and CEO. “Like everyone, we remain hopeful that COVID-19 can be mitigated in the months ahead. Right now, the number of new coronavirus cases a day continues to grow and we are in a crucial stretch where time will tell whether the crisis is further exacerbated or brought under control.”

She added, “We are extremely confident about the future of face-to-face meetings down the road and are carefully planning to bring our community together in person later in 2021.” 

During the pandemic, ASAE’s learning content has been presented entirely virtual, with major meetings such as the MM&C Conference in late April and the Annual Meeting & Exposition in August generating high registration numbers and positive evaluations from participants. Meanwhile, the organization is in the thick of planning the upcoming Virtual Technology Exploration Conference (TEC), taking place Dec. 7-9. So far, registration numbers reflect three times more association professional attendees compared to typical registration numbers for the in-person event, according to ASAE officials.  

ASAE members and partners who have registered for the January or February CEO Symposiums or the January Exceptional Boards program will be contacted by ASAE staff to confirm the dates of the virtual offerings and whether they want to participate. Additionally, any hotel reservations made for any of these programs will be cancelled by ASAE and notification will be sent to registrants.

“ASAE is very fortunate to have great working relationships with our event partners and host hotels throughout the country and we thank them for their cooperative spirit and professionalism as we move certain meetings to virtual,” said Amy Ledoux, chief learning and meetings officer at ASAE. “We miss convening our members, volunteers and industry partners in an in-person setting but we can only do that when it’s absolutely safe for everyone.”

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