In a joint statement today, the leaders of four NATO Regional Conventions scheduled for late Summer and early Fall announced their postponement to 2022.
“The first priority continues to be the well-being of our industry,” explained George Rouman, Co-Chairman of Geneva Convention in Wisconsin. “After ongoing consultation with our attendees, trade show exhibitors, sponsors, and studio partners, we’ve made the difficult decision to suspend our conventions once again this year.”
“We understand the importance of our industry’s in-person meetings and networking events across the country, but the primary focus at this time is reopening our facilities to pre-pandemic levels, and building momentum towards a strong period of moviegoing throughout the second half of the year,” added Geneva Convention Co-Chairman John Scaletta.
Diane Eve, Director of the Rocky Mountain Theatre Convention stated, “We’re encouraged by the current pace of vaccine distribution and decreased COVID-19 case counts, and are hopeful that theaters nationwide will be fully operational in the coming months.”
Todd Halstead, Executive Director of CineShow in Texas agreed, “Our industry is on track for ‘business as usual’ by mid-late Summer, but now that CinemaCon has moved to late August it’s highly unlikely that theater owners and managers will be keen to travel away from their operations for multiple events – just as our industry regains its momentum.”
“We’re all in this together,” according to Robin Miller, Executive Director of ShowSouth in Georgia. “Our industry partners have a long history of supporting us and our charitable causes, but we need to step aside again this year and look to the future. We’ll be back in 2022!”
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