The American Baseball Coaches Association is excited to announce that the 2021 ABCA Convention will be held virtually for the first time in the association's 77-year history! The Virtual ABCA Convention will be held live Jan. 7-10, 2021 and will include all of the features of the annual in-person Convention.
The Virtual Convention will include:
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24 main-stage clinics
- 12 Youth Coaches presentations
- The Expo Theater
- Post-Clinic Q&A
- Hot Stoves
- Virtual networking opportunities and video meetings
- Hundreds of exhibitors showcasing their new products and innovations in the Virtual ABCA Trade Show
The virtual event platform will be easy to use and make the Convention accessible to all ABCA members and Trade Show exhibitors, regardless of current budgetary, travel or health restrictions. A fantastic lineup of clinic speakers for both the main stage and youth session will be announced in September.
"The past several months have been trying times for everyone, with coaches' routines and lives upended, and our Association has also experienced the disruption," said ABCA Executive Director Craig Keilitz. "By pivoting to a fully virtual ABCA Convention, we will be able to hold a great event with excellent speakers and exciting exhibits to get our members primed for the 2021 baseball season."
Convention registration opens on September 1 with an Early Bird rate of $90 through December 15.
Members who attend the Virtual Convention will be able to sign in on one device at a time and will get access to the clinic videos on-demand by February 1, 2021. ABCA members who don't attend the Virtual Convention will get access to the videos as part of their membership in May 2021.
Several factors went into the decision to move the ABCA Convention to a virtual platform, first and foremost, the safety and well-being of members. Additionally, the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, where the Convention was scheduled to be held, is currently closed due to the COVID-19 situation. When the venue reopens, current social distancing guidelines would limit the ABCA Convention to less than 750 coaches in the Clinic Hall. Other venues that can host an event like the ABCA Convention weren’t available.
This past January's Convention hosted a record 7,100 coaches, with a Clinic Hall capacity of more than 6,000. More than 13,000 coaches were ABCA members – also a record – in 2019-20.
In addition to holding the Virtual Convention, the ABCA is now offering the most comprehensive library of baseball coaching videos as an ABCA membership benefit. Coaches simply need to join the ABCA in order to get access to more than 400 past Convention Clinic Videos.