December 23, 2021
A number of folks have been looking at Omicron numbers and asking about whether Arisia will pivot to a virtual convention. We will not be doing so. If we need to cancel in-person Arisia 2022, we will meet our minimal obligations to our hotel contract, but will skip this year and try again in 2023.
Why are we not planning a pivot to virtual?
The amount of work that went into the Arisia 2021 virtual con was immense. Arisia is run entirely on volunteer staff, and we cannot put in that amount of work again, after having planned for an in-person con.
Will we still have an in-person con or will we cancel?
The plan right now is to have an in-person convention. Numbers from Worldcon (DisCon III) in Washington DC this past weekend are good, thus far. Out of approximately 2,225 attendees, they had 9 reports of positive COVID tests, one of which turned out to be a false positive. Our COVID policies are as strong, if not stronger, than DisCon III's.
That said, each person has to make their own decisions about their personal health. We completely understand if folks decide that an in-person convention is not a risk they feel comfortable with. We have pulled back the hotel cancellation date, so if you need to cancel your hotel room, you can do so up to 72 hours before arrival. If you paid for registration this year, you can roll it over to next year.
My hope is to see folks in-person in January and have a great time, in as safe a way as we can. We are heartened by the City of Boston's new vaccination policies, as well as the reports starting to come out that indicate that Omicron, while more contagious, is a milder disease. But we are watching numbers closely, and expect that there will be a major surge after Christmas. If we need to cancel individual events or the convention itself, we will let folks know.
Thank you all for your hard work and your patience,
Vivian Abraham
Arisia 2022 Con Chair