Sports ETA Moves Symposium to Virtual Event
The association’s next in-person annual meeting will take place in Birmingham in 2021
Posted On: June 4, 2020 By :
Sports ETA will cancel its annual in-person symposium that had been planned for Kansas City in August 2020 and launch a virtual month-long series of programming instead. The next in-person symposium will take place April 26–29, 2021, in Birmingham, Alabama. The Kansas City event had initially been planned for April 2020 and was later rescheduled for August 2–5 before the move to virtual.
The new online program will be called SportsBiz XChange and will be designed to provide networking opportunities for Sports ETA members and sports-event organizers. Attendees will be able to make virtual appointments and access RFPs from rights holders throughout August. Registration is expected to open by the end of June.
“As the COVID-19 developments continue to evolve, and in collaboration with our Kansas City event partner, we have mutually decided to move our largest gathering of Sports ETA members and business partners to 2021 while introducing a virtual program option to keep our members connected to decision-makers in the sports events tourism industry,” said Al Kidd, president and CEO of Sports ETA. “I would like to thank our extraordinary hosts at VisitKC and the Kansas City Sports Commission for their guidance and assistance in moving the dates in such a quick turnaround.”
“These are unfamiliar and complicated times for all of us,” said Kathy Nelson, president and CEO of the Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation. “Although I’m disappointed, I believe the decision to postpone is the prudent one. The time will pass quickly and — before we all know it — we will be gathering next year to network, share, learn and socialize with each other. This experience is sure to provide additional valuable topics for our industry of sports events and sports tourism to discuss.”
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