Why New York City?

 

It’s a city with a vibrant creative culture and an undeniable personality that is unique among the world’s top metropolitan cities. It is home to one of IDSA’s largest professional chapters, and IDSA was originally headquartered here at the time of its founding in 1965.

 

In 2003 we held one of our most memorable conferences ever at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, which happened to coincide with the now infamous blackout event. In August of that year, you may recall, a large portion of the Northeastern US was impacted by a massive power outage that included most of New York City. For several hours, the blackout shut down just about everything for millions of people. This happened right in the middle of our conference, and everyone was evacuated from the building. In fact, nearly all of Manhattan took to the streets since being inside was unbearable (it was too hot without a/c).

 

Any event planner might call this a total disaster, yet many who were there remember the moment as yes, highly inconvenient but also something truly special. There were impromptu parties in the streets and meals shared with strangers outside of restaurants. The loss of electrical power turned out to be a connecting force that removed pretense and pulled people together as equals. 

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At the center of all these experiences is people. Fantastic things can happen when we open ourselves to new ideas and find resilience in challenging situations. Conferences large or small can become a defining moment in one’s career, but you must be there to take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself. We hope to see you in New York City. This time we’ll do our best to keep the lights on!