As many GTO Members are already aware, GTO HQ developed plans to hold the 2020 GTO World Conference in Europe. Immediately after the 2019 GTO World Conference, we selected a suitable and attractive location in Europe with the goal of having it organized for registration with an announcement to GTO Members by late November, 2019.
However, GTO HQ was then informed
by the GTO Member that would have hosted the event they could not proceed due to a situation involving a serious health situation concerning the management of the company.
GTO HQ proceeded to pursue another location and one was selected. But preferred dates in June, 2020, were not available. At that point and with the assistance of a highly valued GTO Member, we began to explore the same attractive location but with different dates in July or August, 2020. By then, we were conducting this research toward the end of
January. We were communicating with many GTO Members throughout the world during that period.
At the same time, the Pandemic we now know as the Coronavirus
( COVID-19 ) began to surface and
very quickly exploded on virtually a
worldwide basis.
We still had some hope we could organize the 2020 event while we monitored the spread of the crisis.
The U.S. government then announced the first of several travel bans. While they restricted travel only to the United States, the services of several major airlines began to be reduced to / from a number of global locations.
However, we worked to continue our communications with many GTO members throughout the world with the hope the situation would stabilize to some degree. We communicated many times with a number of other global networks, Some of the global
networks informed us they were likely going to proceed with their events but expected the possibility of substantially reduced attendance. A few were considering a change of dates and several others indicated the possibility of cancellation for 2020.
Meanwhile, GTO HQ continued to communicate with a growing number of GTO Members in many countries and cities worldwide throughout February. As we all know, Coronavirus
( COVID-19 ) expanded worldwide at an alarming pace last month with new headline news announcements daily.
Darrell Summers, Sr., exchanged emails and had phone conversations with a substantial number of GTO
Members in February. Many of the GTO Members had been waiting on a GTO World Conference to be held in Europe. Many of them advised they had planned to be accompanied by members of their families. However, as February proceeded, a growing and overwhelming number of the GTO Members with whom we were communicating advised they would NOT be traveling internationally for at least six months, if not longer.
An international conference ( even a small one ) involves a number of financial guarantees as well as various organizational efforts. As can be imagined, it is extremely difficult to successfully hold such an event
without a firm idea of the number of attendees.
One of our major concerns had to do with the health risks of any GTO Members that would attend. The last thing in the world we would want is to have GTO Members even slightly exposed to the Coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) through air travel, changing airports and / or any other means.
A few GTO Members suggested we go ahead and move the 2020 conference to the last quarter of this year. But as it stands at present, no one knows what the circumstances shall be in Europe in the last quarter of this year.
Most GTO Members contacted wanted us to formally announce cancellation of the 2020 conference but want us to begin working on a GTO conference
in Europe for 2021 and have it
organized and announced early.
Considering all of the facts as they exist at this time, the GTO Board of Directors has reached a decision to
cancel any efforts to hold a GTO World Conference in 2020 and to begin working on a successful event in 2021.
This is extremely disappointing to the
founders and management of GTO as we have had the great pleasure of holding 20 GTO World Conferences in countries all over the world since the year 2000. However, we have never been faced with the challenges that exist with the Pandemic known as Coronavirus ( COVID-19).
As explained elsewhere in this edition of GTO NEWS, the true worldwide number of actual cases of COVID-19 is not known yet known as there is a shortage of " test kits " in many countries. The United States is in that category but it also applies to a number of other countries.
Medical scientists cannot yet even provide a general prediction as to when the Pandemic may subside to allow safe travel. As the old saying goes, we would prefer to be safe rather than sorry. We do not wish to play any part in placing our GTO Members at risk.
We sincerely hope our esteemed GTO Members continue to support the GTO Network as we move forward. We fully intend to make GTO stronger than ever as we move into the future.
The very best to all -
Darrell Summers, Sr.
Chairman
