Rocky Mountain ASTA January 2023 Newsletter

Happy New Year! 

​We've Arrived! 2023 is now here and hopefully your year is off to a prosperous and successful start! 
This has been an odd winter so far with Christmas snow still lingering and periods of intense cold and fog dotting our days and nights. Peculiarities for a Colorado Front Range winter.

​However, such weather bodes well for the ski resorts in our states and the tourism business winter can bring. As with everyones new year, your chapter also is looking forward to new starts and fresh beginnings! 

Our kickoff event will be a virtual presentation on the Secrets of Japan and South Korea to be held Thursday January 19th over the lunch hour. By now you should have received your first invite to this event.

Some have expressed a strong preference for live events and have asked me why we do virtual events at all. I too much prefer live events, it is more meaningful to connect face to face, and we will continue these as much as possible. 

However, there are some events, such as this month, that we do present virtually for a couple of reasons:

1. In past winters, we have held events in January and February where the weather has turned sour the day of the event, and the turnout was beyond abysmal.
   
   This is unfair to the supplier who has taken time out of their schedule to present to us and then finds the room to be near empty due to the weather conditions because the attendees have opted not to drive in. 
   
   This winter, with it's Colorado peculiarities, weather issues are forefront in my mind. 
   
   Holding events virtually during the winter guarantees that we can host the event no matter the weather conditions on the day of the event. For the supplier this is a more fair way to hold the event as it increses the odds of person attending. For the attendee it is a safer way to present as you do not have to drive in potentially wicked weather to event. 
   
   Holding virtual events during this season also protects the chapter from possible venue cancellation costs if the weather turns bad – or if we still host and the attendees back out, leaving us with an empty room.
   
   
2. In some cases, we have suppliers who wish to be presenters but live in other parts of the country and do not want to pay travel costs out here for a single event. In these cases hosting an event virtually makes more sense.
   
   
3. Since our chapter covers all of Colorado and all of Wyoming, holding an event virtually opens up our events to members in other parts of our chapter who live too far away to drive here for one lunch or evening meeting. During COVID, when we started hosting meetings virtually, we discovered that holding virtual events from time to time was a much more equitable way to present to our entire membership and an easy way to add value to their ASTA memberships.

 
For these reasons we do hold virtual events from time to time. 
 
I hope we can look forward to your continued support and attendance at our events, no matter if they are live or virtual. Each will provide value to you starting with our Japan and South Korea event on January 19th! 
 
Please let us know if you have ideas you would like us to consider for future events. We are always open to hearing from our membership so that we may strive to serve you better. 
 
We appreciate your ASTA membership and look forward to serving you in the year ahead!
 Respectfully yours,

Rob Hale
Chapter President