With the deadline looming for SIPAwards entries—you can't win if you don't enter!—it's a good time to list some of the profiles I wrote on 2019 honored entrants. The SIPAwards are a total win-win-win entity, especially in these challenging weeks. Great efforts get recognized and applauded, members read about them, we celebrate (virtually) at SIPA 2020, and helpful times are enjoyed by all.   Here's a rundown of a few profiles that I wrote of 2019 winners, with links to the full stories. Except for one in-person event, they are all initiatives that can be executed during our current climate.   How Informa Jazzed Up a Report to a Profitable Tune In 2018, the Informa Pharma Intelligence editorial and marketing teams collaborated on the release of its annual white paper analyzing the evolution of pharma R&D for the past year. But this wasn't your typical medical or scientific report. It was more music to their audience's ears. "Using the e ...

"In 2016, when Nandita Gupta began her professional career, she was mistakenly assumed by some of her new colleagues to be 'the new HR girl' rather than the new process controls engineer. It was a less-than-inspiring welcome into life as a professional woman in engineering, but Gupta was undeterred, committed to earning the trust of her direct co-workers as well as operators on the plant floor. Now, at 26, she is leading the effort at Georgia-Pacific to develop a mentor network that will connect young and rising engineers with experienced employees who can provide professional guidance and support."

Yesterday, I came across an article in Ad Age by Traci Alford, president & CEO of Effie Worldwide, that said this: "Our data clearly show that campaigns whose approach to testing the boundaries is a little tepid perform considerably less-well than those aggressively pushing the envelope. If you want to stand out with consumers today, you simply can't skimp on bravery."

There's probably a course out there somewhere you can take called Event Launching 101 for Publishers. But even better, you can follow Aging Media Network's prime event example called Dished. The first one-day event took place in March 2018, sold out its 150-person capacity in 90 days and just won a 2019 SIPAward for Best New Success Story. Year two this past March sold out even faster, Elizabeth Ecker, director of content for Aging Media Network, told me this week.

Hollywood has their Oscars, and we have our SIPAwards.  And although they've held a few more than we have—91 to 40—we plan on having a host at our celebration this year (June 4). And if we had five nominated songs, we would showcase them all. (I did write about one cool publishing song last week.)