APCO Sticks With Aug. 2-5 Conference -- Despite COVID-19

While most associations have dropped plans for in-person summer conferences due to COVID-19, APCO is forging ahead with plans to meet Aug. 2-5 in Orlando. It's even offering a $100 credit to attendees, to be used at next year's conference. Infection rates are on the rise in Florida, and experts warned against holding the conference live.

The public safety communications association “made the final decision to move forward … after much deliberation which culminated hundreds of hours of work by our events team in collaboration with the Orange County Convention Center and our host hotel partners to [ensure] that you can come to Orlando and be safe while enjoying the APCO conference experience that you have come to expect,” it emailed members Thursday.

The convention center lists 34 events, as late as October, which have been canceled, including two the same time as the APCO meeting. It lists 31, through December, which have been rescheduled. IWCE, a major public safety conference also scheduled for August, was pushed until next year.

“I would not attend,” said David Celentano, who chairs the epidemiology department at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. “Florida is having a major spike caused, no doubt, by opening up too early, and lack of public commitment to basic public health measures” including hand washing, masks and physical distancing, he said. Events are always better outdoors than indoors, he said. “Do you really want exposure to hundreds or thousands of folks who probably have not been tested?” Celentano asked: “About a third or more people have no symptoms when infected, but themselves are highly infectious to others.”

“Holding any such events is ill-advised, especially if they can be avoided,” said Jill Roberts, epidemiologist at the University of South Florida. “Many conferences have been delayed or alternatively, moved online. … Our big public health conference is going entirely online.” If the APCO conference happens, “mandatory mask policies must be in place,” Roberts said: “Social distancing should be used as much as possible. Attendees must be provided ample opportunity to wash hands. It will be best not to serve meals in the venue as eating is not possible with masks on.”

APCO didn't comment Friday. "Our attendance will be smaller, and we will be implementing social distancing measures and furnishing and strongly encouraging the wearing of masks during inside events," the email said: "We have canceled all receptions that involve buffet style foods and close contact with others."

Cancelations

Other groups involved with 911 have changed their event plans.

Many 911 centers aren’t allowing staff to attend conferences, said National Emergency Number Association CEO Brian Fontes. “It’s because of fear of their staff being exposed and bringing something back into the center.” Some vendors aren’t attending any conferences this year for similar reasons, he said: “They are respectfully -- and I get it 100% -- erring on the side of caution.”

NENA postponed its own conference in Long Beach, California, from June 13-18 to Sept. 24-29. “Every organization ... has to do an assessment of what’s really in the best interest of those who would attend a real event,” Fontes said. “We are constantly in contact” with California, the Long Beach health department and the city’s convention center to assess “whether we will be allowed into that center in September” and “what are the procedures that center is implementing to ensure the safety and security and health of their employees as well as anyone entering into the building,” he said. “The number of hours that we have spent in just simply monitoring the situation in Long Beach is absurd.”

The National Association of State 911 Administrators held its annual June meeting virtually, said Executive Director Harriet Rennie-Brown. NASNA has an in-person meeting scheduled for October in Atlanta, she noted. “We’ll wait and see because a lot of it will depend on our members, as well as the public safety community” and state restrictions including whether events of that size are allowed in Georgia and whether officials from other states are allowed to travel, she said. Or a state might allow travel but require two-weeks self-quarantine when someone returns home, she said.

“Virtual conferences are the best choice for the next few months,” emailed National Public Safety Telecommunications Council Technology & Broadband Committee Chair Barry Fraser. “That option helps protect older folks (like me) and others with high risk, and also provides opportunity for greater participation from members who can't attend for whatever reason.”

Skipping Events

Many 911 call takers and others in the emergency communications profession aren't allowed by their employers to attend any conference. Though exceptions can be made, those we queried generally discouraged such participation.

Colorado “is discouraging all out-of-state travel for state employees unless it is urgent and necessary,” emailed state 911 Program Manager Daryl Branson, who’s not going to APCO. Branson believes APCO will work with health officials to ensure safety. Nonetheless, Branson predicted “turnout will be significantly diminished due to lingering concerns over the pandemic.”

The Texas Commission on State Emergency Communications canceled most travel "for the remainder of the year due to COVID and in the interest of the health and safety of our staff,” emailed Executive Director Kelli Merriweather. She made an exception for one staffer who's to receive APCO’s Registered Public-Safety Leadership certification at this August's meeting, Merriweather said. “Because of her pending recognition, she said she would pay for her own trip and take vacation time to go, but I don’t think she would go if not for this special circumstance.” The staffer will be required to self-isolate for 14 days when she returns to Texas, Merriweather said.

“With a total head count of 25 people, I can’t afford for the pandemic to hit us,” Merriweather said. “We would not be able to carry out our mission-essential functions. Additionally, the Governor and Legislature have directed all Texas state agencies to take a 5% cut from our current 20/21 budgets and non-essential travel and conferences was at the top of the suggestion list. I do not anticipate that we will be going to any conferences in the foreseeable future.”

A spokesperson for ASAE, the association for associations, said it doesn’t have complete information on what groups are doing in light of COVID-19. “We have either postponed or moved into the virtual space for the majority of our meetings,” the spokesperson said: “We do have some of our smaller face-to-face programs still planned for late summer and early fall, but we are closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation in the places where those events are taking place.”

APCO usually includes an FCC briefing. A commission spokesperson declined comment on whether it will send staff to such events.

Editor's note: This article is part of an ongoing series about how the novel coronavirus is affecting telecom and consumers. It includes past stories on consumer broadband: 2004060038 and 2003190042. It also has five articles on 911: 2004270046; 2004130032; 2003180033, with the most recent two published in the last several weeks. They are here and here in front of our pay wall (along with some other virus coverage). So is a recent article about FCC transparency during the pandemic: here. Other articles have discussed keeping customers and ISP technicians safe 2004100038, among other topics.