Thank You to GABA’s Community

As we approach the end of 2020, I want to thank each of our supporters for your dedication and hard work during a difficult year. The GABA community thrives because of the commitment of our members, sponsors, IG Chairs, executive team and Board members. You all kept our organization running and continued to deliver ideas, relevant content and “virtual” networking events for our community. A big THANK YOU to all members who renewed their memberships despite the economic uncertainties.

In early 2020, we had already started to refresh the GABA brand – and almost overnight, we adopted new ways of collaboration. At the same time, we continued to redefine GABA’s value to our members to ensure we will be offering a relevant product/service for years to come.

Networking is a big part of GABA and we adapted quickly to move events online – thank you to all who participated in our events as speakers or participants, and the GABA team members who made this transition happen. GABA’s recent annual “Financial Outlook 2021” event, co-hosted with the German Consulate moved online and the quality and participation is something to celebrate. (Disclaimer: We all prefer the beautiful German Consulate and meeting in person.)

Many of you have gone further and spent hours of volunteering and applying your expertise to start the next chapter of GABA and the specific challenges amplified by COVID-19. We are incredibly grateful for your contributions – and the great work has just begun.

Throughout this year, our top priorities were to launch a new website and to create more mature and relevant content. We also reached out to some of our larger members to collect valuable feedback on how GABA can help their vision, expectations and needs.

On behalf of the entire GABA team, I ask you to continue providing us with your feedback and challenging us to be even better tomorrow so that we all thrive as a community. Watch out for a survey at the beginning of the new year which will collect your input.

All of us are eager to return to a more normal routine in 2021, but we are not there yet and still need to rely on virtual events to protect us all. We hope that you will keep supporting us, whether we will stay online for a while longer, or will get together in person again soon.

Thank you, again, for helping us to meet the challenges of this pandemic. We can all be proud of how our organization has responded, and I’m confident in a bright future for 2021 and beyond.

We wish you and your families wonderful, peaceful, and safe holidays.

Sincerely,
Thomas Neubert, Chairman