Events were certainly top of fold on the first day of BIMS 2020 yesterday, with a very popular Connections and Cocktails. Frank Salatto of Government Executive Media Group spoke of the success they've had pivoting to virtual. "There are new opportunities in the data you can collect and the leads you're able to deliver," he said. Here are some of the virtues of virtual events as we look to 2021.

(Editor’s Note: Join us at the virtual BIMs 2020 in December for a discussion on Operating in the New Normal, as industry leaders such as Industry Dive’s Meg Hargreaves, arizent’s Gemma Postlethwaite, Brief Media’s Elizabeth Green, SmartWork Media’s Matthijs Braakman and PMMI Medias’ Joe Angel share how they are leading through the crisis, including the future of work, morale and productivity and revenue growth. Register here). 

Earlier this month, Questex announced the creation of a “modern” information services model that leverages audience data to tie content and events closer together to create a year-round customer engagement framework.

The hope that live events would return in the fall is increasingly being replaced with the realization that many (if not most) conferences and trade shows in the U.S. will continue to be virtual or hybrids of online and in-person for the remainder of 2020 (last week Informa saw an 8 percent stock jump when it said select trade shows would resume in Asia but warned that live events in the U.S. won’t return until at least September). 

As publisher events originally scheduled for the first and second quarters of 2020 migrate to a fall season already packed with existing conferences and trade shows, preserving original attendee and sponsorship budgets is no sure thing.   

Getting a seat at Time's new invitation-only event requires membership in the recently launched Time 100 Membership program — which means paying a fee unless you are a VIP. One of the four tiers is called Rising Stars: For $1,750, businesses send a selected employee to the conference. Patron-level members and former Time 100 honorees also may nominate Rising Stars.

Eighteen months after SourceMedia tapped Gemma Postlethwaite as its new CEO, the financial information company today unveils a new name: Arizent.

Here's one component that I haven't had top-of-mind before when marketing for an event: Making it clear to prospective attendees that not only are we going to give them plenty of takeaways and quality learnings, but we are going to make it easy for them to share those learnings with their colleagues—perhaps through our event app.

A common thread in film festivals these days is to continue the momentum all year round. The Annapolis Film Festival, which takes place in March, is showing a documentary featured called Toxic Beauty next Tuesday. The DC Environmental Film Festival, perhaps Washington's best film festival—also in March—screens films every month, congratulates their filmmakers on achievements through the year, blogs each month and sponsors other mini-events.

Members are descending here in Washington, D.C., for the 43rd SIPA Annual Conference. It seems that events for SIPA publishers these days can come in many shapes and sizes—from Chartwell's Customer Experience Conference to Jefferson Communications' summer camp fairs to Magna Publications' conference on student leadership to Spidell's tax seminars.