An Important TIVA Peer Awards Announcement

As many of you are aware, the recent spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 has led to significant disruption to all of our daily routines, including public gatherings and large events. As a membership organization, TIVA has a singular obligation to serve the best interests of our members — which in addition to professional development, includes doing our part to ensure that all our events are as safe as possible for all involved. That holds particularly true for our annual Peer Awards ceremony.

That said, we did not want to cancel when there are alternative (and creative) ways to frame our approach. While the adage “the show must go on” may at times feel overused, in this case we believe we truly can embody that can-do spirit. We are determined to continue with the public recognition of production excellence in the mid-Atlantic region, and have developed an alternative presentation method that we believe will provide a singular, safer and better promotional opportunity for our members, sponsors, and award recipients — and one that will ultimately have a reach far beyond that of a one-time, in-person event.

Instead of hosting a public event on March 20, TIVA will present the 23rd Annual TIVA Peer Awards Ceremony as a Digital Video Stream on April 19, 2020. This specially produced presentation, staged and recorded at Interface Media Group’s studios in Washington D.C., will allow us to announce award recipients, honor our tribute awardees, promote our sponsors, and show clips of Gold award recipients.

Our plan is to treat this just as we would the traditional live ceremony — as a must-see show that will reach not only award recipients and TIVA members, but a much wider audience as well (as it will not be limited by geography).

We did not make this decision lightly — but ultimately (and especially after hearing directly from some of our members about their concerns) we believe it would be irresponsible of us to schedule a substantial gathering of the production community under the current circumstances.

A silver lining to this approach is that this new format opens up the possibilities of much broader viewership and increased promotion of the production talent here in the DMV area. We will be refunding all Gala Ceremony ticket purchases within the next few days, and will be sending out specific broadcast links and times soon. Should you have any individual questions, please feel free to reach out to us at peerawards@tivadc.org.

Thank you very much for your understanding, and our sincerest best wishes for your continued health and safety in this difficult time. And early congratulations to all of this year's Peer Award recipients, as well as the Best of DC winner. We look forward to seeing you (or you seeing us, as the case may be) online on April 19!

In this instance, the show truly will go on.

Sincerely,

Bill Coughlan
President, TIVA-DC

Todd Clark
Executive Director, Peer Awards Chair, TIVA-DC