From an INBA e mail sent to members.
Greetings INBA supporters,
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted, and continues to impact, all aspects of our lives, professionally and personally. The Illinois News Broadcasters Association is no different.
As many of you know, we previously canceled our Spring 2020 convention, which had been slated for April 24-26 in Urbana. We had been hoping to be able to gather in September in Peoria to get ready to cover a consequential election.
Unfortunately, the board of the association does not believe an in-person convention will be financially feasible for our organization. Therefore, we have made the difficult decision to move the Fall 2020 convention to a one-day, digital-only format on Saturday, September 26, 2020. Additional information will be available later this summer.
Several factors went into this decision, including existing re-opening guidelines from the state of Illinois, and attendance patterns at fall conventions.
Once again, this was not a decision the board made lightly. We are disappointed that we cannot offer the traditional educational and networking opportunities of an convention, and are working to figure out an option for an in-person gathering that is not tied to the convention.
We welcome any questions you might have about the move to a digital convention, or suggestions for panels. President Josh Morgan can be reached at jmorgan@wrex.com , and our Vice President, Brian Moline, can be reached at bmoline@illinois.edu .
We look forward to being back better than ever in 2021.