A Message from PCMA Board Chair Stuart Ruff-Lyon

Our First 100 Days with COVID-19

Author: Stuart Ruff-Lyon       

Stuart Ruff-Lyon, 2020 Chair of the PCMA Board of Directors

Stuart Ruff-Lyon, 2020 Chair of the PCMA Board of Directors

If you’re reading this on May 20, it has now been 100 days since your PCMA leaders and management team began considering a response to the impact of COVID-19 on our PCMA community and for the larger global business events industry.

That now seems like a whole lifetime ago. These last 100 days have likely been the most professionally challenging of our respective careers. In my case, not only did we at RIMS have to manage the cancellation of our 10,000-person annual meeting in Denver on very short notice, but I also had my very own close encounter with COVID-19, spending 21 days recovering in my New Jersey home. I can tell you, it wasn’t pretty.

In both cases, I can say without hesitation, I would not have made it through these challenges without the personal and professional support of our PCMA community. For that I am truly grateful.

Through these past 100 days I cannot help but be blown away by the commitment of our members to collaborating around our industry’s most pressing question of the day: “What are business events going to look like in the future and when are we going to know?” PCMA has made that the focus of our support for this community and you have more than stepped up:

As amazing as all of this engagement is, what I am absolutely blown away by is that in the midst of this unprecedented crisis PCMA’s membership continues to grow. In fact, PCMA’s membership is now at an all-time record level of 7,461.

In San Francisco I challenged you to step up and get involved with PCMA. And in these past 100 days you have more than delivered. Thank you.

As dark as these past 100 days have been at certain times, our PCMA community has never cowered in the shadows of the moment. You have always sought the light of tomorrow. With the continued support of all of you, in the next 100 days PCMA will lay down a path to the future of our industry.

I can’t wait.

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