Conference News: RISE Falls off the Calendar; Cannes Lions Fest Seeks Speakers

RISE & Collision Calendar Revision:  The team behind the Web Summit empire of events has made another change to their 2021 lineup. Instead of hosting RISE in March and Collision in June, as initially announced, they will instead host one conference on 21 – 22 April under the Collision brand name. The sessions will run within a time frame most convenient to North American schedules. RISE will return to Asia in March of 2022 but move from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur. Web Summit is still scheduled for 1 – 4 November 2021 in Lisbon.

Expanded Sales Series: The Alexander Group’s leadership sales series is expanding in 2021. The lineup of events, which attract a cross-industry community of revenue, sales & marketing, operations and customer success leaders from the Fortune 1000, will include a brand new conference in April –Women in Revenue: The Growth Innovators. Taking place from 27 – 28 April, the new conference will feature the “journeys, strategies and lessons of global organizations as told by female executives. Equal focus will be placed on these women’s varying roles as business leaders, industry experts, philanthropists mentoring future generations, and positive change agents.”

Speaking Opportunity: For global creative excellence, there are few events that offer the clout of Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. In a normal year, more than 16,000 advertising/marketing types attend! Scheduled for 21-25 June in Cannes after a year-long hiatus, the Festival is now accepting content proposals from marketers, agencies and other creative types. If you plan to submit by the 29 January deadline, be sure to review the 2021 content guide, which will walk you through the do’s (like “creatives are visual people,” so do show your work!) and don’ts (panels are highly discouraged).

Lunchtime Learning: The Aspen Security Forum is a three-day conference taking place annually in Colorado. Presented by the Aspen Strategy Group, the gathering offers an opportunity for global leaders to discuss the key national security issues. While the 2020 event was held online, the sessions were still as compelling as ever. Hear Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State discuss the state of America and the world; Find out what Laura Rosenberger, Director, Alliance for Securing Democracy, German Marshall Fund of the U.S. and Renee DiResta, Research Manager, Stanford Internet Observatory have to say about the intersection of technology and democracy; and Ambassador of China to the U.S. Cui Tiankai will share a ‘View from Beijing’. All session videos may be found here.  

Coming Up Next Week: Marking “58 years of service to the ever-evolving global television industry,” the National Association of Television Program Executives will run the NATPE Market & Conference as a virtual event 19-22 January. Each conference day hones in on a particular theme, covering revenue, audience, content, and production. SINET will produce a virtual panel titled The Freedom on the Net on 19 January, addressing this timely topic with perspectives from senior security, legal, and policy executives at Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter. The first Argyle Digital CIO Leadership Forum of 2021 will run 19 January with a focus on “Enabling an Agile Organization in the Year Ahead.” The forum covers issues such as accelerating digital transformation, fostering a culture of security awareness, and unifying business and technology strategies to create long-term value. And with a speaker line up featuring analysts, tech leaders, and VCs, the third annual MediaOps Predict (21-22 January) again attempts to forecast the future of technology as it relates to digital transformation, DevOps, cloud-native & cybersecurity.