Couldn’t have said it better…I ll be there…social distanced and vodka — I mean, how much safer can we be?
Well we could be drinking bourbon.
COPA is people, and the reality is that by the time the week of the event rolls around, the majority of people will either feel comfortable attending (if it were held 2-3 weeks ago on the up swing) or not feel comfortable attending at all (all the bad press of this week). I doubt any steadfast RSVP for the event would attend any event “at all cost”. Everyone has a No-Go point, whether they have planned for it or not.
From my end, I’m torn - I have never been to Migration, I missed New Orleans by a hair and only due to bad forecasted weather. I’d love to attend. At the same time, I’m pretty sure I’d have to find much more than new flying friends in Amelia Island if I even brought it up to the wife (like a replacement bride and home).
One suggestion for Ed and the U team - this one comes from other (much larger) events who have had to adapt. Why not ‘flip the classroom’ so to speak. Here’s what I mean:
Migration has three major outcomes:
1- Networking, Camaraderie and exploration
2- Fantastic didactic and practical learning
3- Revenue for COPA to continue the mission
While #1 can mostly be only handled with live attendance at the island (iffy and only for a smaller group), #2 and #3 can be handled, in a guaranteed way, up front. I recently had this experience with a cybersecurity conference that was about to be cancelled. I urged them to run it virtually, promised to underwrite losses, and provided a team from my old company to run the event virtually for them.
It ended up bringing more people by a factor or 3 than any live con ever did. We charged the same, and the quality of programming was the best we ever had. It worked so well that attendees started asking the same team to run their virtual conferences. I put capital behind the team and they’re now running around hosting umpteen virtual cons. How do these cons actually work?
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They get people to commit a solid block of time. This isn’t a webinar that you peruse or watch later.
One of the biggest benefits of a conference is that you immerse yourself in the learning, and the best sessions are often the ones you accidentally stumble into to discover something new. For that to happen, people sign up, pay, and attend the full day affairs -
While the conferences are long for online deals, they have lots of social events and interaction built in. Attendees are often invited “on stage” with questions and dialog. We often close out the day with happy hour private live improv shows, comedy, concerts, etc. All private and for the groups and their families, who normally wouldn’t have had the opportunity.
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The access to talent is MUCH more broad than a live event. We’ve been able to host incredible speakers that you wouldn’t normally be able to afford for your run of the mill con (think Gladwell, Petraeus, etc). This goes just as much for industry celebs too. I can imagine the cirrus folks being much more willing to have Zean Nielsen jump into a moderated fireside chat online than kill 2 days from his calendar flying out to the island. At our security con, we brought in the head of MI5’s Nudge unit (UK) to talk about behavioral psychology. The choices for something like a COPA event would be limitless.
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(hypothesis) People would commit in greater number, and with more conviction to an event like this, compared to the discussions ongoing about Amelia.
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(hypothesis) People would be willing to pay the same per day rate for such a high quality virtual con, especially knowing that proceeds are funding and sustaining COPA/COPA U rather than almost all going towards overpriced boxed lunch at the hotel.
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The events would be archived, and available on demand for future consumption by future members. Such a video library would carry zero additional cost to create and manage, and would garner much greater value for COPA on the whole.
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There would still be the option of the live get together as proposed here. It could be a week after the virtual affair, some time later when things ease up, in 2021, whatever… The point is they are decoupled events that have similar but complementary benefit.
As for Jack’s posts about Board Liability - I doubt any such liability could be litigated, and I’m not familiar with non-profit boards, but I know that on the company boards I sit, one of the first questions asked was how our D&O policies would reflect decisions we make with respect to bringing employees back. If management wasn’t going to cover their mouths with masks, then we were going to damn sure cover our bee-hinds! All that to say nothing of the moral responsibility…
I’m happy to help - I’ve offered my volunteer services in the COPAU thread to the COPA gods, but I’m sure others are perfectly capable of delivering as well without all the naggy insistence.
Jed
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I sit on a board as well, and the patients we fly must sign covid related waivers, as well as the volunteer pilots. May suggest same with this event.
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We are likely to learn soon enough if M18 will be held at Amelia Island this coming October.
As I expressed earlier in this topic, I don’t believe attending Migration would be purely a personal choice, the Migration Committee and the COPA Board of Directors must first decide to hold the event, after which there would be myriad of challenges to overcome regarding SARS-COV-2, state and local restrictions, hotel policies, etc.
The BOD is in a predicament, and I while I appreciate the thoughtful consideration that each of them has surely invested in this challenge, and don’t envy the position they are in, Migration is more than likely facing a challenging vote at the Board level.
Given the diversity of opinions expressed within this topic, coupled to the fact COPAU recently decided to cancel all 2020 CPPP events, I am not confident M18/2020 will pass a vote.
I fully support the BOD’s decision, and look forward to attending the next Migration!
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I am a libertarian personally – I hope the Board holds the event; takes reasonable precautions; and allow grown people to make their own decisions…
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I second the motion.
Travel and Leisure readers just voted Amelia Island as one of the top island destinations in the U.S. I’ll be there with or without COPA.
Gil
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I have made an official announcement in a separate post:
However, I wanted to post here to keep you all directly informed.
I truly wish we were able to hold the event this year, however after only 28 Members and 5 Vendors registering, it is just not financially viable to proceed, let alone the other Issues/Risks associated with this years event.
I appreciate everyones comments, both those publicly shown in this thread, but also several private messages I have received. I can tell you this decision was not an easy one, however its a decision that had to be made now, and we will re-focus our efforts to 2021 and Scottsdale AZ.
We will be having Migration in Florida at the Omni Report Amelia Island in 2022!
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As I said on July 4th, this script was written a long time ago…
Erik,
Kudos to you and the Board for putting in the time and the herculean efforts to try and make it happen this year. This is unfortunate but understandable given the circumstances.