ASAE, MGM Resorts Announce Cancellation of Face-to-Face 2020 Annual Meeting & Exposition in Las Vegas Due to COVID-19

May 12, 2020

WASHINGTON— ASAE, in close collaboration with MGM Resorts International, announced today it will cancel its in-person 2020 Annual Meeting & Exposition, scheduled to be held August 8-11, at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas due to public health and safety concerns related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

ASAE is instead working with scheduled speakers, sponsors and industry partners to deliver a reimagined Virtual Annual Meeting & Exposition the week of August 10. Registration information, exact dates and industry partner opportunities for the Virtual Annual Meeting will be shared with the ASAE community by the first week of June. The ASAE Board of Directors will also hold a virtual meeting on Aug. 7.

“After careful discussion of every aspect of the meeting and experience with our fantastic partners at Mandalay Bay and MGM Resorts, ASAE has made the difficult decision to move the 2020 Annual Meeting & Expo to a virtual experience,” said ASAE President and CEO Susan Robertson, CAE. “As excited as we were to put on a robust, memorable in-person Annual Meeting in Las Vegas this August and to celebrate ASAE’s Centennial with the association community, the public health and safety of our attendees, staff and volunteers and the MGM staff outweighed any other considerations in our collective decision-making process.”

“Our team worked closely with ASAE to build out what would have been an incredible event in August, but we understand the hard decision they had to make in the current climate,” said Stephanie Glanzer, Senior Vice President & Chief Sales Officer for MGM Resorts. “We have long valued our relationship with ASAE and are eager to welcome the association community back to Las Vegas very soon.”

ASAE, MGM and other event partners in Las Vegas were in regular contact during the planning of ASAE’s 100th Annual Meeting and paid careful attention to the timing of federal and state of Nevada plans to ease air travel restrictions, social distancing guidelines and restrictions on large gatherings once the COVID-19 threat has abated. Given the number of still-unknown factors related to the containment of the virus, and with ASAE Annual Meeting attendees typically coming from all over the country as well as internationally, all parties concluded that cancelling the face-to-meeting meeting was the safe and responsible action.

“ASAE and MGM were beyond prepared to exceed attendee expectations for the 2020 Annual Meeting. We look forward to working with our Las Vegas partners in the future,” said Amy Ledoux, CAE, CMP, ASAE’s Chief Learning and Meetings Officer. “Shifting gears, we are now fully immersed in creating the most dynamic Virtual Annual Meeting experience for our members possible. Virtual attendees can expect the same great content that we were primed to deliver in Las Vegas, so stay tuned. We’re going to structure this reimagined experience to fit every member’s schedule and budget and there are going to be multiple options for engagement.”

Further details about ASAE’s Virtual Annual Meeting & Exposition will be communicated as soon as they are finalized and updated on ASAE’s Annual Meeting website ASAE’s Annual Meeting website . ASAE’s 2021 Annual Meeting is scheduled to take place Aug. 14-17, 2021, in Dallas, TX.

MEDIA CONTACT: Lauren Precker, CAE, lprecker@asaecenter.org, 202-626-2735.

About ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership
ASAE is celebrating 100 years of making society smarter, better and safer. The Centennial anniversary represents ASAE’s role as a leader and supporter of progress and innovation in the association industry. ASAE is a membership organization of more than 48,000 association executives and industry partners representing 7,400 organizations. Since it was established 100 years ago, its members have and continue to lead, manage, and work in or partner with organizations in more than a dozen association management disciplines, from executive management to finance to technology. With the support of the ASAE Research Foundation, a separate nonprofit entity, ASAE is the premier source of learning, knowledge, and future-oriented research for the association and nonprofit profession and provides resources, education, ideas, and advocacy to enhance the power and performance of the association and nonprofit community. Visit ASAE at asaecenter.org.