Michigan governor has given green light for August 2020 Mackinac Policy Conference following COVID-19 outbreak

In many ways, the convention industry may serve as a microsm for assessing the economic health of our nation and the State of Michigan with the advent of COVID-19 here. [1-6]

In the greater Detroit area, one significant casualty has been WCX 2020 World Congress Experience scheduled for the latter half of next month. Organizers of the annual mid-May Motor City Comic Con are “hoping that things will normalize before then,” allowing them “to proceed with MC3 as planned.” [7,8]

North American International Auto Show management evidences little indication that its planned move to an annual June event is anything but full-steam ahead. [9-12]

Yesterday, Detroit Regional Chamber invited a select group of stakeholders and media outlets to participate in a conference call where the 2020 Mackinac Policy Conference would be discussed. Saline Journal took part in that this morning. Chamber President and CEO Sandy K Baruah opened just after 9:00am, then, with the announcement that this event will be moving from its traditional late-May dates to August 10 through 13. [13-15]

Characterizing Mackinac Policy Conference as “an important statewide asset,” he went on to assure those of us on the telephone that our governor, legislature, and representatives in Washington DC were all in agreement with this decision.

Notably, Michigan is currently under a State of Emergency according to Executive Order 2020-04 issued by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. On March 13, President Donald Trump declared a National Emergency as best means of unleashing “the full power of the federal government” to deal with COVID-19 throughout the United States. [16,17]

More broadly still, Governor Whitmer announced this past Monday that Michigan Executive Order 2020-21 would go into effect on March 24, 2020 at 12:01am — and “suspend activities that are not necessary to sustain or protect life.” That Order includes a sunset provision of April 13, 2020 at 11:59pm.” [18]

While noting that “planning will occur within public guidelines for COVID-19,” Mr Baruah devoted most of his time during the fifteen-minute conference call discussing the importance of going forward with the 2020 Mackinac Policy Conference in terms of business. As a forum where such contacts are made, relationships built. The economic impact on Mackinac Island, The Grand Hotel, and tech firms, among other labor forces key to making this conference an ongoing success.

Crain’s characterized Sandy Baruah as “almost resigned” to what on Sunday was anticipated to be actions by Governor Whitmer that would follow the lead of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine with a move to “further shutdown … non-essential work and travel.” [19]

This is consistent with what the President of the United States himself argued earlier this week — against the idea that no price, including devastation of the US economy, was to high in an effort of safeguarding every last potential exposure to COVID-19. [20]

According to the latest Gallup poll, the American people agree with this more braodly considered approach to dealing the crisis. [21]

Virtually every aspect of social distancing mandates will need to have been rescinded just to get onto Mackinac Island by ferry or charter flight, then eat, sleep, and congregate among audiences eager to hear from keynote speakers. Moreover, each guest can also anticipate spending upwards of $5000 to be a part of this Mackinac Policy Conference, suggesting an expectation that mainstream Michigan businesses, too, will be on their feet and comfortable making such expenditures ten weeks from now.

Given some predictions of current circumstances (or worse) lasting eighteen-plus months, the big news from Detroit Regional Chamber today may be that Governor Whitmer and President Trump are not at all that far apart in how they feel about the need to focus on the economy as well as medicine to solve COVID-19 challenges. [22,23]

Look for the final answer to that by August 10.

References

1. “How The Economy Is Affecting B2B Exhibitions in 2017” David McMillin (June 1, 2017) Convene Magazine.
2. “What’s the Economic Impact of the Meetings Industry?” David McMillin (April 9, 2018) Convene Magazine.
3. “Diane Keller (2020.03.23)– on supporting businesses as part of supporting community throughout COVID-19 crisis” Diane Keller (March 23, 2020) Saline Journal.
4. “Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)” CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
5. “Novel Coronavirus Reports” CDC.
6. “Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak” World Health Organization (WHO).
7. “WCX 2020 World Congress Experience” (2020) SAE International.
8. “About COVID-19” Michael Goldman and Miriam Kruger (2020) Motor City Comic Con.
9. North American International Auto Show (home page).
10. “NAIAS Statement Regarding COVID-19” (2020) North American International Auto Show.
11. “Detroit Auto Show proceeding as planned as New York show is delayed over coronavirus concerns” Matt Durr (March 11, 2020) mLive.
12. “Auto Show and Charity Preview tickets go on sale Monday” Melody Baetens (March 11, 2020) The Detroit News.
13. Detroit Regional Chamber (home page).
14. “2020 Conference” Detroit Regional Chamber.
15. “Mackinac conference moved to August due to coronavirus outbreak” Chad Livengood (March 24, 2020) Crain’s Detroit Business.
16. “Executive Order 2020-04 – Declaration of State of Emergency” Gretchen Whitmer (March 11, 2020) State of Michigan.
17. “Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Conference” (March 13, 2020) The White House.
18. “Executive Order 2020-21 (COVID0-19)” Gretchen Whitmer (March 23, 2020) State of Michigan.
19. “Michigan business leaders advising Whitmer on orderly stay-at-home order” Chad Livengood (March 22, 2020) Crain’s Detroit Business.
20. “Trump wants to scale back coronavirus restrictions by Easter to help economy. Is it all up to him?” John Fritze, Courtney Subramanian, and Rebecca Morin (March 24, 2020) USA Today.
21. “President Trump’s Job Approval Rating Up to 49%” Jeffery M Jones (March 24, 2020) Gallup.
22. “We’re not going back to normal” Gideon Lichfield (March 17, 2020) MIT Technology Review.
23. “Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID- 19 mortality and healthcare demand” Neil M Ferguson, Daniel Laydon, Gemma Nedjati-Gilani, Natsuko Imai, Kylie Ainslie, Marc Baguelin, Sangeeta Bhatia, Adhiratha Boonyasiri, Zulma Cucunubá, Gina Cuomo-Dannenburg, Amy Dighe, Ilaria Dorigatti, Han Fu, Katy Gaythorpe, Will Green, Arran Hamlet, Wes Hinsley, Lucy C Okell, Sabine van Elsland, Hayley Thompson, Robert Verity, Erik Volz, Haowei Wang, Yuanrong Wang, Patrick GT Walker, Caroline Walters, Peter Winskill, Charles Whittaker, Christl A Donnelly, Steven Riley, Azra C Ghani (March 16, 2020) Imperial College.