PCIA cancels GlobalXChange, event not to be rescheduled
The Personal Communications Industry Association was set to open its GlobalXChange trade show in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, when word reached the organizers about the use of hijacked airliners to attack landmark buildings on the East Coast. PCIA immediately canceled the trade show.
“It was an obvious decision that it was the right thing,” said Melinda Johnson, PCIA’s director of communications. “We canceled the even out of respect for the country, for the safety of exhibitors and attendees, and in view of the ban on air travel.”
Johnson said that this year’s event would not be rescheduled. Next year’s GlobalXChange is scheduled for Sept. 17-20 in New Orleans.
Johnson said the PCIA staff has been busy assisting exhibitors and attendees who are trying to get home. Wednesday was a full pack-up and move-out day for exhibitors, but once their materials were crated, shipping their goods and sending their staffs home presented some problems because of air travel restrictions that only began to be lifted on Thursday.
Johnson was unable to say what financial considerations might be worked out with exhibitors and attendees. She said that was a matter to be worked out once the staff returns home.
Two industry figures, Steven D. “Jake” Jacoby, chief operating officer of Metrocall, and Karen Kincaid, a partner with the Washington law firm of Wiley Rein & Fielding and former FCC offical, died on their way to the GlobalXChange when American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.