Planning for the 2020 APA-IL State Conference #APAIL2020 began over a year ago with the decision to meet for the first time in Rosemont, IL. Little did we know how much the world was going to change in the coming months.
The 2020 Conference Committee continued to meet and plan during the first few months of 2020 but as COVID-19 started to wreak havoc across Illinois, we started to put planning on hold, waiting to see how things were going to develop.
The Chapter surveyed members and non-members to check-in and understand your interest in attending this year’s conference. Many of you would love to connect with each other and find out what your colleagues are doing across the state. We know that many of you are facing a major budget crunch, have travel bans in place, or would not be comfortable with in-person events just yet.
Working with our event planners and venue, we took these survey results into consideration as well as the Governor’s Restore Illinois plan. But above all else we have kept the health and well-being of our members at the forefront of all conversations. As a result, just 1 week ago, we made the difficult decision to cancel our in-person conference. However, as planners we are adapting, and we are very excited to announce that we have begun planning for a virtual 2020 State Conference!
Please continue to save September 16-18, 2020 for our virtual conference dates. Check back to www.ilapa.org/apail2020 for the latest information. We will be offering live and recorded programs throughout the day so you can attend as your schedule allows. Count on us to provide the speakers and sessions you have come to love as well as some new and exciting possibilities given our virtual environment.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns you can reach to President Jake Seid, AICP at president@ilapa.org or to our Executive Director, Paula Freeze, at admin@ilapa.org. Stay safe everyone and we’ll see you VIRTUALLY in a few months.