Inside ICI
Program Disrupted but Not Abandoned by Barbara Tiseo, Meeting & Event Planner, Investment Casting Institute U
sually at this time of the year, I would be writing a recap article about the Business Leadership
and Development Conference. I would be writing about the educational aspect of the meeting, as well as highlighting the networking events and reiterating how great it was to reconnect. This year due to COVID-19 and subsequent social distancing and Shelter in Place mandates, we had to cancel our spring event. Never in my entire life, did I think that this would ever happen. One moment, we are busy planning upcoming events, the next our entire world has tilted on its axis. At the ICI, we are working remotely to continue serving our valued Members and have come up with a webinar series featuring a variety of speakers addressing pertinent business issues.
We are
already planning our 2021 meeting in New Orleans, identifying and selecting great networking and guest events, as well as developing a list of speakers and relevant topics to add to our agenda. We also have rescheduled the
Certification course, which would have been the 20th Anniversary of the program conducted by Russ Rosmait at Pittsburg State University. The new date is June 2 – 10, 2021.
® The June 2020 Regional meeting
that was to take place in Muskegon Michigan has been rescheduled to September 22, 2020, same location. We have also scheduled a Regional meeting in Phoenix Arizona on November 10, 2020.
Registrations and additional information for both of these meetings will be forthcoming. As Executive Director Joseph Fritz
noted, we have not given up on 2020 as of yet. We recognize that we have the obligation to provide our Members with a meaningful program annually, and though the pandemic did set us back, we have taken and continue to take measures to fulfill that obligation. We hope the new webinar series fulfills the promise made by the Business and Leadership Development
Conference
for content pertinent to today’s business matters and concerns. In spite of the postponement of the
World Conference to 2021, we are still addressing opportunities to provide a meaningful technical program this year. A leading consideration is one that has been adopted by many trade associations that have found themselves in a similar position, the virtual conference. What I have learned so far is that there are a diverse number of platforms available
for such an event, each having a solution to address the conference, the expo and in most cases, a networking platform. Naturally, the virtual world can
never take the place of face to face business and what we have come to expect from it, seeing old friends, renewing acquaintances and developing new relationships, but it does offer a viable means to support a conference as well as start a new or reinforce existing business relationships. A new committee has been formed to address whether this is right for us. It is comprised of Joseph Fritz, Keith Fleming, Mike Hendricks, Julie Markee, Nip Singh and myself. We are still very early in the process and have a long road to travel in a short time, but we are hopeful that we will arrive at a solution that not only offers meaningful content and interaction, but is cost effective as well. Time will tell. We are doing all of the above in
the hope and trust that COVID-19 will soon be eradicated and that all Shelter in Place mandates will be lifted. In the meantime, we would like to remind you that we are still available if you have any questions or concerns about any of your benefits or our scheduled events. Be safe, and I hope to see you again,
sooner rather than later. May 2020 ❘ 5
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