A Message from Leadership About the ASHRM 2020 40th Anniversary Conference

The year 2020 marks the 40th Anniversary of our Society and a time for our profession to come together and celebrate how much we have accomplished in the past four decades in pursuit of our mission to advance safe and trusted care. As the COVID-19 pandemic introduces myriad new challenges to our professional and our personal lives, ASHRM members all over the country have consistently answered the call and led in the efforts that protect our hospitals and the public health of our communities. The health care risk management profession has learned to thrive under much uncertainty and duress.

We too as an association have learned that this environment of uncertainty demands greater flexibility and responsiveness. We have been listening to our members and learning how your needs and your economic realities have changed over the past four months. We are impressed that your continued commitment to professional development has not waivered. We have heard, loud and clear, your demand for expanded education opportunities in a variety of formats.

ASHRM is committed, now more than ever, to meeting your needs and delivering the high-quality education you have come to expect. We are excited to announce that we will be offering members the choice to attend the ASHRM 2020 40th Anniversary Conference in-person or as a virtual conference.

We continue to plan for the ASHRM 2020 40th Anniversary in Phoenix this October as we have heard from members who desire in-person education and networking. We acknowledge that an in-person meeting may not be practical or possible due to external conditions. For now, in order to live up to our core value of transparency, we acknowledge that this path will provide us with flexibility until the conditions this October become clearer.

Since the meeting is a little more than 100 days away, we have opened registration for the in-person version of the ASHRM 2020 conference. Over the next several months, we will continuously monitor the public health situation in Phoenix for the improvements that we feel are necessary to safely conduct our event, as we work with our partners the Phoenix Convention Center and the surrounding hotels to ensure that we follow all guidelines from state and local authorities to reduce the risk to attendees.

In the event cancellation of the in-person conference is necessary, we have modified our policies so that attendees may choose between a full refund or the option to transfer their registration to the virtual version of the conference, which will be offered regardless of our choice to hold an in-person event.

The virtual ASHRM 2020 conference is still in the early planning stages, so we cannot yet reveal many details, other than we will ensure that attendees have access to our most popular concurrent sessions and a virtual version of the Solution Center. We are committed to offering education that meets member CE needs at a cost that will enable those with diminished financial support to participate.

As we consider our options, in the midst of great uncertainty, we are determined to do the right thing for ASHRM members and to provide you with more options to meet your professional development goals. Earlier this year, we launched the CPHRM Exam Prep Course, one of our most popular courses, as an on-demand program. We are working now to follow that up with more on-demand education opportunities that we will announce in the coming months. We encourage you to continue to network and collaborate with your peers on the ASHRM Exchange Online Community.

Thank you as always for your support and for the work you do.

Sincerely,