“With travel bans in place for many key TMPAA partners and the recent CDC recommendations to suspend gatherings of over 50 people for the next eight weeks, it is now apparent that we will not be able to offer an event that is safe or valuable for our members,” Scotto wrote.

He said his organization intends to connect with every scheduled attendee and sponsor of the event to offer refunds or credits and provide guidance in canceling hotel reservations within a few days.

The TMPAA announcement came on the heels of the big news that the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) had called off its annual conference for the first time in its 70-year history. The RIMS 2020 Annual Conference & Exhibition had been scheduled for May 6 in Denver.

“We can’t express enough how grateful we are for your patience as we explored every viable option,” RIMS CEO Mary Roth and President Laura Langone said in an announcement to members and registrants.

“As we moved through our own risk management process, assessed the facts, analyzed the data and carefully calculated the outcomes of a range of scenarios, it became abundantly clear that this was the best decision for our members, our conference participants, and our employees. At the end of the day, your health and safety remained our number one priority.

RIMS said it is will be addressing the hundreds of agreements, policies and commitments, as well as the concerns of thousands of attendees. Connections Housing will administer cancellations for reservations within the RIMS hotel block and the group is working up a refund process.

The conference is one of the industry’s largest every year, with as more than 10,000 attendees from 70 countries.