Houston—The Plastics Industry Association has canceled the in-person components of its NPE 2021 plastics show in Florida "due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic," the group announced.
The international show, which features multiple exhibition halls displaying plastics manufacturing machinery, speeches, and a forum for industry meetings, takes place every three years in Orlando, the home of Walt Disney World. The last NPE show was in 2018.The association announced Jan. 5 that upon consultation with medical and legal experts, as well as its own directors, executive committee, exhibitors, and members, that the in-person portions could not take place as planned.
"It has been determined that it is not possible to hold the planned event and also provide a safe environment at that time and location, and therefore we must cancel the in-person show," the group said.
The announcement had no information on a virtual event in place of the live show, and the association did not respond to a request for comment Jan. 7.
Multiple major industry events have been canceled or gone virtual in light of the pandemic, including the European Petrochemical Association's annual conference in October and the Latin American Petrochemical and Chemical Association's annual gathering in November.
In 2020, one of the first major global conferences to be canceled early in the pandemic's global spread was IHS Markit's CERAWeek, an annual gathering in early March in Houston. In September, IHS announced that its 2021 CERAWeek would take place virtually March 1-5.
The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers also canceled its annual International Petrochemical Conference in late March 2020, and in December announced that its 2021 event would take place live, with virtual options, May 23-25 in San Antonio, Texas.
AFPM said Dec. 1 that the organization was confident that "within the next few months there will be meaningful progress in the fight against COVID."
NPE's 2018 event had more than 56,000 registrants, according to the association. AFPM typically attracts about 3,000 attendees. Both attract international participants.
