The TAA 2021 Meeting & Convention will be held virtually.

Due to the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, the Tobacconists’ Association of America Ltd (TAA) has canceled the planned in-person meeting—originally scheduled for April 11-15, 2021 at Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic—and instead will hold a virtual meeting on March 23, 2021.

This is the second consecutive year the TAA Meeting & Convention has been canceled and the organization has been forced to hold a virtual meeting.

The TAA is a fairly small group of some of the country’s top tobacconists, about 80 retailers as well as 40 or so manufacturers. The association gathers annually to discuss issues facing the industry and retailers, networking and to sell a lot of cigars.

During the event, the organization also holds two selling events—one known as the Dream Machine where the retailers collectively order to secure larger discounts and the other a more traditional trade show. Typically, around a dozen manufacturers release new exclusive cigars for the retail members of the organization under the TAA Exclusive Series Program banner. Those manufacturers agree to give a portion of the proceeds to the organization, usually around 25 cents per cigar.

This year is the 53rd year the TAA has held an annual meeting.

The organization has indicated there is a possibility that it could hold an in-person meeting at Casa de Campo in October, but nothing has been finalized.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.