Greetings Community –
COVID-19 changed a lot of lives this past 18 months. Lost jobs, changes to our daily routines, changes to our families lives, changes to who we hang out with, and most tragically, a massive loss of life in the United States of over 650,000 people. It hasn’t been a great 18 months for a lot of us but I believe it will get better – the “when” is what remains to be defined by all of us.
Over the past 20 years planning PDXLAN, I never thought to include a pandemic in my contingency planning for PDXLAN. I never calculated what would happen should the event *not* be able to happen. For me it’s always been ‘ride or die’ in terms of getting an event produced. I never thought the government could literally ban all large events, before 2020 that was unheard of. I’d like to thank everyone who stuck with us this past two years and those who understood the difficult decisions that had to be made with regards to the event.
Being that COVID 19 is now part of our lives for the foreseeable future, we need to acknowledge that it is going to change the way things are done in our daily lives, including the events we attend. PDXLAN is no different – we need to make changes to try and keep attendees as safe as we can. Ultimately, we are responsible to follow county, state, and federal guidelines at our events. It is for those reasons we must enact a COVID 19 policy at PDXLAN.
Today we are announcing our COVID policy for the Fall 2021 event. We were waiting as long as we could so that we could make decisions with current data, yet we wanted to make a decision early enough to give attendees the 2.5 months to sell their tickets should they not want to come or not agree with the policies set.
Policy Announcement:
Starting with PDXLAN Fall 2021, PDLXAN will now always require masks. This isn’t just our decision; it is the current law we need to follow in order to have the event. We must follow this guidance and always require masks, even while at your seat gaming. You may lift your mask temporarily enough to take a drink with a straw, but that’s it. An eating area will be set up where you may de-mask for meals and snacks. That will be the dedicated area to eat on premises.
Out of an abundance of caution we are also choosing to require vaccination of everyone at the event, or medical documented proof of recent negative test result. We’ve chosen to not fully require vaccination for all at this time, but we highly encourage you to do so considering one vaccine has passed all safety testing at the FDA and has now been fully authorized. Please note that the vaccine requirements could still change before the event, a decision that will be based on local trends and guidance.
As for what documentation you will need to attend, our COVID-19 policy page is the place to check for that. Please understand that there will be ZERO exceptions for all staff, attendees, sponsors, and event center employees. Anyone caught not following the rules will get just one warning before being removed from the event.
We understand that there may be a loud minority that is very vocal about this policy. While we respect their ability to have an opinion – our decision has been made to the best of our ability and will not change based on negative feedback / responses on social media / Discord.
We hope that all of you will recognize the need for this policy and go along with it. Ultimately, we are doing what we feel best to protect everyone at the event and pass certain health and safety guidelines set by the government.
More on our Covid-19 policy can be found here.
Thanks for your time,
Matt Conwell | Event Owner