While our design community continues to provide us with heartwarming encouragement to produce Design Influencers Conference (DIC) 2021, we are saddened to announce our decision to cancel the February Atlanta conference; now rescheduled for the same time frame in 2022. We have zero-tolerance right now for putting our community near conference venues or harm’s way.
Exactly one week before the February 2020 Design Influencers Conference (DIC) was scheduled to open its doors in San Francisco, a handful of Covid-19 cases were reported in California. San Francisco’s mayor wisely declared a State of Emergency for her city in order to secure funding should the virus spread to the city. As organizers of DIC, we faced the challenging decision of whether or not to cancel DIC 2020. Following guidance from local health and government officials, the event was held in a way that allowed our attendees, speakers, sponsors, and staff to return home healthy after attending the last large live 2020 event produced in our industry before hunkering down for the long haul. For many of us in the luxury home design world, the March 2020 conference remains a lasting glorious memory of human connection throughout our extended lockdown and quarantine phases.
We cannot ask anyone to risk doubling down on those good fortunes by creating a large indoor conference this February. The most important thing our DIC team can do is focus its attention on simplifying the continuing marketing developments and opportunities in front of the luxury design community. Know that we remain intensely committed to finding other ways (until we are advised by health professionals that it is once more safe to put lots of people together indoors) to help design professionals and brands achieve meaningful outcomes by:
- Sharing advanced marketing knowledge and skills to build influence, brand, and authority for growth
- Creating situations that connect influential design professionals and brands
- Instigating designer/brand marketing collaborations
While several conferences and trades show organizers in all industries are presenting their conferences virtually, we will not. Conference organizers trying to replicate live experiences online inevitably create disappointment for their communities. If conferences were meant to live online, we would have launched them there in the first place. Rest assured, we will not attempt to recreate a conference format like DIC through a computer screen.
You Don’t Have to Wait until March 2022 – Announcement Coming Soon!
Instead, we are in late-stage planning of a digital networking and content environment offering the same unique style of ROI our events are known to deliver. If you have ever attended DIC, you know what we mean. This new experience leans on (1) carefully curated industry outsiders and insiders sharing digital marketing takeaways, (2) constructively introducing brands and influencers, and (3) comfortable and meaningful personal and business branding activities for both attendees and sponsors.
More than anyone, we will sorely miss producing the conference for February. So, please remain safe and healthy and look for our upcoming announcement. We are working diligently so you and your company can benefit from a simple and sensible digital DIC experience …designed specifically for online influencer marketing networking, education, and enhancement.
Adam Japko, CEO, Esteem Media, and Founder of Design Influencers Conference
For more information, contact us at info@designinfluencersconference.com