TEDxOshkosh 2020 Cancelled – Returning in the Fall of 2021
June 16, 2020
The TEDxOshkosh team has made the difficult but necessary decision to cancel the October 3, 2020 event, due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Planning is already underway to return – for the fifth year – in the fall of 2021.
With the health and safety of the audience, speakers, facility employees, and TEDxOshkosh team always in the forefront, multiple options for putting on TEDxOshkosh 2020 were considered. Given the nature of the close indoor confines of the performing facility -- in both audience and speaker spaces -- the team determined that a live performance should not be held before an audience.
An online live-stream was also considered, but vetoed because it would eliminate one of the most important features of TEDxOshkosh – the opportunities, during the course of the event, for interactive group discussions about the talks, and the ideas those discussions generate. In the end, once the live or live-stream options were eliminated, no practical options remained, and the team made the decision to wait a year before coming back full-force, and with the pandemic behind us.
Although disappointed at not being able to continue the event in 2020, the TEDxOshkosh team remains as committed as ever, and will return for another great year in 2021.