It was, as far as I can tell, the last holdout among major legal organizations that was still planning an in-person annual conference.
But now the Legal Marketing Association, the organization that represents legal marketing and business development professionals, has bit the bullet and cancelled its live conference and shifted to virtual.
The live conference had originally been scheduled for April and was rescheduled due to the coronavirus crisis to take place Oct. 17 and 18 in Denver, Colo. In now moving to a virtual conference, the LMA has shifted the dates again, to Oct. 19-22.
In a message to members Wednesday, LMA President Jill Huse wrote:
“After careful consideration of several factors, including valuable feedback from so many of you, the LMA Board of Directors have decided to transition the 2020 LMA Annual Conference to an online virtual experience, which will take place October 19-22, 2020. Protecting the health of our attendees, speakers, sponsors and staff has always been our top priority, and unfortunately holding an in-person gathering of our community this year is not feasible or prudent.”
While there are still many details to be worked out, Huse wrote, the organization is aiming “to create an immersive virtual event experience that will deliver the high-caliber educational programming and networking opportunities you have come to expect of the annual conference.”
For LMA members who already paid to register for the Denver meeting, their registrations will be transferred to the virtual conference. Those registrants will be entitled to receive two additional passes to share with others.
Pre-registrants who do not wish to attend the virtual conference will have three options:
- Transfer the paid registration to the 2021 conference in April.
- Request a refund. The LMA says that refund requests must be submitted prior to Aug. 21.
- Designate a substitute to take the spot.
With regard to hotel reservations, anyone who reserved through the LMA at what was to be the conference venue, the Gaylord Rockies, will automatically be cancelled.
