August 31st, 2021- The American Fly Fishing Trade Association (AFFTA) Board of Directors announces today that the 2021 International Fly Tackle Dealer (IFTD) show, scheduled for October 20th-22nd in Salt Lake City, Utah, has been postponed until 2022.
 
“I am beyond excited by the show AFFTA, and our Show Director Kenneth Andres, put together. There is a real buzz around the show, and we are proud of the almost 100 exhibitors we partnered with to join us in Salt Lake City this year. We were looking to strike a balance between safely gathering and providing an exciting, educational, and productive show. We had the latter, but safely gathering was getting harder and harder due to the spread of the unpredictable Delta variant,” said Lucas Bissett, Executive Director of AFFTA.
 
A follow up email will be going out within the week to exhibitors. Answers to questions regarding the logistics of this postponement will be included in that email along with the opening of a dialogue around next year’s gathering.
 
“While I am disappointed we are not getting together as an industry this year, I am confident we are going to bring our membership together with an even better industry gathering in 2022. The Board unanimously made the difficult but correct decision to postpone IFTD 2021, as the safety of our members is paramount. Under our new Executive Director’s leadership and vision, the future looks bright, and we are excited to get everyone’s input on what gatherings look like moving forward”, said Jim Bartschi, Chair of the AFFTA Board.
 
A robust communication plan will be implemented over the next couple of months laying out the future of AFFTA’s industry gathering.