POWER Magazine’s ELECTRIC POWER 2020 trade show and conference, an established event in the electricity business for many years and scheduled for Denver April 14-17, has been put on hold. The decision to postpone the event is part of a cascade of energy conferences disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The delay of the annual conference, staged in conjunction with POWER Magazine (where I have been an employee and a freelancer for over 10 years) could be a major financial blow to the magazine and its publisher, Access Intelligence of Rockville, Md. The company said, “We have already been evaluating our options to secure future dates for the event and will communicate those as soon as the plans are finalized. In the meantime, please continue to monitor our website for updates. Thank you for your understanding and continued support of the ELECTRIC POWER Conference and Exhibition, and we wish you safety and good health as circumstances continue to evolve.”
ELECTRIC POWER’s main rival in electricity trade shows, PowerGen International, held its annual shindig last November, with the next scheduled for December 2020. ELECTRIC POWER is a spin-off of the PowerGen conference, organized by some key executives some 18 years ago, who were disgruntled with PowerGen.
Among other energy conferences and trade shows that have been brought down by the novel coronavirus:
* CERAWeek, which was scheduled for March 1-2 in Long Beach, Calif. The Wall Street Journal reported that IHS, the producer of the conference, which has been staged since 1983, “will fully refund participants, whose standard attendance costs average $8,500.”
* The Energy Storage Europe trade fair scheduled this month in Dusseldorf, Germany.
* The Green Energy Expo in Daegu, South Korea, set for April.
* The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual Regulatory Information Conference, which had been scheduled for March 10-12.
Other future energy conferences in jeopardy include the Nuclear Energy Institute’s Nuclear Energy Assembly, scheduled for Washington May 20-22. In a statement, NEI said, “NEI is taking the covid-19 virus and concerns around its impact seriously. At this time, NEI is proceeding with Nuclear Energy Assembly conference. We are providing attendees with alternatives to in-person participation (e.g., webinars, teleconference lines). We continue to monitor the situation and will release our decision as new information becomes available….”
For commercial energy trade shows, large amounts of money are at stake. The Wall Street Journal reported, “The cancellations raised hard questions for organizers over whether to refund participants for circumstances beyond their control. Some conferences that decided to proceed were also finding that unpopular, as exhibitors demanded refunds amid declining attendance and safety concerns, and at least one major event reversed course and canceled.”
Cancellation insurance is available to commercial trade shows and conferences. But it isn’t clear whether the coverage includes pandemics, and its isn’t known whether the events that have been cancelled have had insurance coverage.
— Kennedy Maize