Uncertain times, and many unanswered questions. April update.
Learn how COVID-19 is impacting our schedule.
First and foremost, from the crew at THAT, we hope that you’re healthy. These are unprecedented times and regardless of who we are, the tech we use, we’re all affected.
Today, we were originally scheduled to announce this year’s speakers along with opening ticket sales and room blocks. Also today, like you, we’re sheltering at home and have a growing list of unanswered questions. It’s this laundry list of questions that’s honestly been more upsetting than we could have imagined, but we refuse to just throw in the towel because times are tough. It’s moments like this when we need our community more than ever. Our goal has always been to foster a community of people, not create an event. THAT is just a platform to best support you and the community at large and August is our family reunion. Communities exist everyday, not just the first week of August.
Truthfully, at this point in time we’re not sure if we will be allowed to have an event of our size in August. Until we get some of those base level questions answered, we’ve decided to postpone the announcement of speakers and delay opening ticket sales.
What about August?
What about August then? Is it cancelled, delayed, virtual, or right on-track? Well, it’s certainly not “on track”, but this is where we need your help. The vast majority of you have some role in shipping software or are related to someone who does. One of the best principles when creating a product is seeking user feedback as early as possible. Why guess when you don’t have to? Well, just like when we ship software, we’re asking for a bit of your time to help guide us in planning what lies ahead.
We need your help.
We’ve compiled a quick 3 question survey. We’d like to better understand just how the current events could, or have, already affected your future decisions. Our intent here is to make the most informed decision as possible, avoiding any unnecessary missteps.
You can take the 3 question survey here: https://forms.gle/KGhcUAaiuDmSHbgE9
Looking forward.
I promise you that we will get together again. Ironically, 10 years ago I was told hosting a physical event for a bunch of geeks was dying and everything was going online. That might be the case at the moment, but nothing can replace just sitting down and working together. Regardless, given the current situation, we are back to square one; no rule books, only our collective future to plan for.
Live Stream.
Clark and Carrie recently went live talking through a number of the factors we’ve all been presented with along with some of the plans going forward.
Stay healthy and stay positive.