Rick Lippincott recently posted this to a STC leadership listserv (subject line and all). I am reproducing it here with his permission as it contains info that the general public interested in the STC Summit should be aware of. Thanks to Rick for the heads-up!
STC Summit Chicago Thoughts and Pass-Along
Something that might be worth noting and passing on to anyone who is planning to attend the Summit in Chicago in May.
It turns out that the dates of the Summit (May 20-23) overlap with a pair of huge Summits (i.e. as in “international heads of state) that will be taking place in Chicago at the same time:
- The G8 Summit (eight largest economic nation’s heads of state) will be taking place in Chicago on May 19 & 20
- The NATO Summit (up to 28 nation’s heads of state, plus military leaders) will be taking place May 15-22.
US President Barack Obama will be attending both events.
(By the way, so far as I can tell these events and dates were not announced until long after the STC selected Chicago for 2012. There’s no way anyone could have foreseen this coincidence.)
We will be some distance away from all of this, but I think one could reasonably expect the following:
- Chicago will be full of politicians, administrative staff, military leaders, and news media.
- There will be extremely high levels of security which will tie up traffic and cause some restrictions of movement.
- This time period will be a magnet for protesters.
- Hotels will fill up quickly. (While the STC has a block at the Hyatt, there may not be many openings left once that block runs out.)
- Flights in and out of Chicago will book up faster than might be expected.
- Foreign dignitaries will likely be coming in and out of O’Hare.
I would recommend that persons planning to attend the Summit consider doing the following:
- Make hotel and airline reservations as soon as possible.
- Make every effort to fly into O’Hare Airport (symbol: ORD) and avoid Midway Airport (symbol: MDW). Midway is located very close to downtown, and travel from there to and from the conference site (at O’Hare, after all…) may be difficult and have delays.
- Give serious thought before planning activity in downtown Chicago. There are a couple of activities that look interesting and fun, but it doesn’t take much tear gas to spoil an outing.
I’m sure that out at the O’Hare Hyatt things will be fine and we won’t see much of it beyond what we see on the news. I’m also hopeful that the almost inevitable protests don’t get out of control. But even under the best of circumstances, the downtown area promises to be a congested mess.
I hope this helps somebody…
–Rick Lippincott
PS I’m not ruling out the theory that the G8 and NATO selected this location and date because they knew we would be there. Maybe they just wanna hang out where the cool kids are, y’know?
Related articles
- Downtown Streets To Be Shut Down During NATO, G8 Summits (chicago.cbslocal.com)
- Economist: NATO/G8 Summits Could Be A Disaster (chicago.cbslocal.com)
- Chicago grants 1st permit ahead of G-8, NATO (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Walter’s Perspective: Summits Putting Heat On The Mayor (chicago.cbslocal.com)
- Chicago Protesters Filing Applications In Advance Of G8, NATO Summits (chicago.cbslocal.com)
- Police Officers To Work 12-Hour Shifts During NATO/G8 Summits (chicago.cbslocal.com)
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