NATPE, which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has decided to cancel its annual January conference. Held for more than a decade in Miami, and before that in a rotation of cities like New Orleans and Las Vegas, the January confab next year was set to unfold at the Baha Mar Resort in the Bahamas.
While the locale was well off the beaten path for an industry trade show, it was chosen due to the onerous economics of putting on a conference at Miami’s Fontainebleau Hotel and the neighboring Eden Roc.
Covid wiped out the 2021 and 2022 editions of the January event and put NATPE on its back foot financially. The plug was pulled in January 2022 just days before the scheduled start, as the Omicron variant forced the Sundance Film Festival and other industry happenings to go virtual or dark.
NATPE president and CEO JP Bommel made the announcement, which indicated that no decisions have been made about the organization’s event slated for Budapest or any other 2023 gatherings.
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