BizBash is marking its 10th anniversary this year with a special edition of our magazine. You can see the digital edition of the issue here, and we’ll be posting all of the stories from the magazine over the course of the next six weeks. Here’s the note from editor in chief Chad Kaydo that kicks off the issue.
First let me say that the timing of this issue is pretty ambiguous. We started publishing email newsletters for New York event pros in September 2000, BizBash.com launched in February 2001, the first magazine appeared in spring of 2002, and we’ve been adding new markets to the mix in the years since. So when exactly should we recognize our 10th anniversary?
We decided to do it now.
Less ambiguous are the changes the event industry has seen in the past decade. There have been plenty of style trends, sure—comfort food alone has come in and out of vogue several times. And the seesawing economy and a constant flow of new technological innovations have made for drastic changes, as they have for many industries. But during this decade the event planning profession has also experienced major shifts in how it’s perceived within the culture at large and—more importantly—within corporate boardrooms.
Documenting those changes, big and small, was our challenge for this issue. Instead of focusing on our own milestone (which we’re proud of, but how much do you care?), we aimed to tell the story of the event industry in this decade and to place the highlights and changes into the context of where this business has been and where it’s going. We also wanted to showcase some of the best ideas of the time. (That has remained our mission from the beginning, when our founder and C.E.O., David Adler, dreamed up this whole enterprise.)
So we looked through stacks of old magazines, hunted around BizBash.com and our archive of photos, polled readers, and brainstormed among ourselves. We identified 23 events that adapted to the times in innovative ways and had our writers and editors analyze what made them work. And we came across lots of products and ideas that had big and small impacts on the industry—from wikis, blogs, electronic name tags, and iPads, to chocolate fountains and square plates, to eco-friendly events and R.O.I. measurement tools.
As we looked back, I asked some of our editors to reflect on their time as BizBashers. You can read about some of their memorable moments and favorite events here.
But for many of us, our favorite is always the next one, right? For creative people, the thrill is in dreaming up something new, in solving all the inevitable problems along the way. And for those of us on the other side of the transaction—your lucky guests—it’s seeing what you’ve come up with. What’s better than walking out of the office on an evening still filled with possibility, thinking, “I’m going to a party?”
