By: Emily Bainbridge, ’21, staff writer  

Earlier in the semester, VALE announced that it would be having its 2020 conference on Saturday, Nov. 21.

However, Jeffery Snyder, chair of the music department and director of music business concentration, and his students who are helping to plan the event have made the decision of pushing the conference back until Saturday, Dec.5.

“The unique situation to learn from this year, is the decision of how to respond if an event isn’t 100% ready, which is the case with the conference,” Snyder said. “Do you continue as planned knowing that there are areas that are not yet ready, do you cancel, or do you present a more finished product with schedule changes and readjusted marketing, which creates a new set of problems. The students decided on the latter.”

Brandon Vance, president of the VALE conference, said that it was a tough decision. “We have put in a lot of hard work as a class,” Vance said. “We wanted to make sure this was the best conference it could possibly be. The decision to move the conference back was a class discussion and there was support for moving it back. We believe this extra time will allow us to put on a conference that all will be able to remember and have a positive influence on us all.”

Despite the date change, the conference will still take place online via Webex.