I’m sitting at my desk here in Arlington, Virginia, watching yet another winter storm fall on my neighborhood, trying to blot out the fact that I’m supposed to be on my way to someplace much brighter, much warmer, much less snowy: Florianópolis, Brazil, for the 2015 COCAL Congress. Convene is one of COCAL’s media partners, so I was going to be attending along with Michelle Crowley, PCMA’s peripatetic director of global development. Until yesterday afternoon, when I looked at my itinerary and realized that the flight I thought was scheduled for last night actually had departed the night before.

Rebooking so late in the game was prohibitively expensive, so instead of enjoying a stimulating conference at the beautiful Costão do Santinho resort in Florianópolis, I’m stuck in the winter of our discontent, with nothing to blame except my inability to read the correct date on a flight itinerary.

But thankfully, I live in the 21st century, which means I can at least partly follow along remotely — monitoring the #COCAL2015 hashtag for tweets and photos, keeping in touch with Michelle throughout the program, etc. So keep your eyes on this space for ongoing coverage of COCAL 2015, whose schedule includes great content mixed with networking and sunshine and blue skies. Or so I must imagine.