11/06/2020

How Associations Have Held In-person Events During COVID-19

GSAE, NCBA among those who have

While many associations are planning to hold all their events virtually for the foreseeable future, some have managed to successfully host smaller, in-person events since the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S. Among them: the Georgia Society of Association Executives (GSAE) and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).

Although associations and attendees are eager to gather in-person again, many are still wondering how they can plan and execute a safe face-to-face comeback. To get some insight on this, I talked to Corey Rosenbusch, president and CEO of The Fertilizer Institute. In September, TFI held its 2020 World Fertilizer Conference in Indianapolis.

Rosenbusch admits that TFI had a few things working in its favor that made a two-and-a-half-day, in-person event possible. First was the format and size of the meeting. “This conference is really about providing attendees with opportunities to have scheduled, one-on-one business meetings and network with one another,” he said. “We didn’t need to worry about having thousands of people in a giant ballroom and then moving them from breakout session to breakout session throughout the day. In years past, attendance at this conference was about 750.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.