Conference News: Realscreen heads south; NYT’s New Deal(book); CFP for Grace Hopper

Surf’s Up for Real(screen): After more than a decade in Santa Monica, Realscreen West is taking a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway. The 2020 conference’s new host venue will be the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort and Spa in Dana Point, CA. A leader in the industry covering unscripted and non-fiction content on the U.S., Realscreen West will take place from 2 – 4 June. According to Claire Macdonald Realscreen VP, “it’s time for a change of scenery. Dana Point is breathtaking and we’re hoping that delegates will enjoy a more relaxed environment for networking and leave the hectic rush of the city behind them for a couple of days.”  Keep an eye on the conference website which will add registration and event advisory board info shortly.

New Deal in DC: The New York Times plans to evolve their event strategy in 2020 focusing on the popular DealBook brand. They will host two gatherings in 2020. The traditional Dealbook conference, which will happen in the fall and the new DC Strategy Forum taking place on 21 May in DC. The spring forum is by invitation only and free for the curated audience of 70 executives and entrepreneurs. Andrew Ross Sorkin, Editor at Large, Columnist and Founder, DealBook for The New York Times will lead 2 mainstage conversations, but the rest of the half-day forum will consist of working sessions. These groups of 10 – 12 attendees will provide recommendations on challenges such as climate change or immigration. After having a discussion lead by a NYT journalist or editor, they will present the results back to the broader group. Their recommendations will be published in a separate section of the New York Times.

Playing it Safe: The GSMA announced Wednesday the decision to cancel Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2020 due to “the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern, and other circumstances.” In recent days, many of the marquee sponsors and exhibitors had scaled back plans or pulled out altogether. Further updates, if and when they are made, will be announced on the event website.

Speaking Opportunity: With more than 900 speakers, AnitaB.org’s Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) is the world’s largest gathering of women technologists. GHC20 is scheduled for 29 September – 2 October in Orlando. Now through Wednesday 25 March, prospective speakers can throw their hat in the ring and submit ideas for a presentation, panel, workshop, or other relevant format. Our advice? GHC carefully curates its tracks to offer a wide-range of fields for every technical woman, so be sure to map your proposal to one of these focus areas.

Lunchtime Learning: Last year Business Insider moved away from its annual Ignition Conference and instead planned a series of single theme events focused on rapidly transforming industries popping up in cities around the world. These intimate events are carefully curated and limited to at most 100 attendees; they are also live streamed. While the event team hopes to include conversations around finance, consumer tech, enterprise tech, transportation, and media in 2020, the first of the series was held 14 January and focused on the innovations and issues that are “Redefining Retail.” Learn what retail leaders like the COO of Rent the Runway and Instagram Shopping’s product lead had to say on topics like sustainability and the next generation of consumers.

Coming Up Next Week: Energy providers and innovators will gather at the Parks Associates Smart Energy Summit. Examining the impact of IoT on utilities, energy service providers, and consumers, Smart Energy Summit runs 17-19 February in Austin. At DevNexus, professional developers will “join the <dev/>olution” and attend sessions on Kubernetes, quantum computing, architecture, and more starting 19 February in Atlanta. Harvard Business School’s annual Dynamic Women in Business Conference (22 February; Boston) has been examining the challenges and successes women face in their professional lives and beyond for almost three decades. This year’s event will revolve around the theme “Driving Change Together,” celebrating women who have effected change within their organizations and industries. And as the novel Coronavirus continues to impact China and create uncertainty, we are seeing more regional event cancellations and postponements. One example, the Startup Impact Summit had been slated to start next week in Hong Kong, but organizers are bumping it back to July (dates TBD).