As state stay-at-home orders proliferated in mid-March, ASPS leadership was faced with a difficult choice: cancel the June Northeast/Midwest Regional Fly-In and lose a precious opportunity to meet face-to-face with congressional offices, or keep it in place and risk a disruptive, costly last-minute cancellation. In the interest of ASPS member safety and recognizing the epidemiological reality more-and-more with each passing day, the in-person event was officially canceled on April 1. With that, planning immediately began for a "virtual" experience.

The structure of the event – slated for September 15-16, 2020 – strives to offer an experience as similar as possible to the typical Regional Fly-In. It will have training for inexperienced fly-in participants and a briefing on the issues. It will have a congressional guest speaker, two if you are in the PlastyPAC Member Benefits Program at the Chairman's Club level or higher. And it will have face-to-face interaction, albeit through Zoom, with members of Congress and the healthcare staff that help them make decisions. Experiences to-date operationally at ASPS have shown that this can absolutely produce high-quality interactions.