Top: Over the past year, Carol Cannata (center) worked creatively with the Italy-based designers at EFI Reggiani to design and produce the luxurious and fashion-forward scarf as shown on 2019 Women Influencers Victoria Ringwood (left), Konica Minolta; Erica Calise, Sharp (2nd from left); Maegan Lujan, Toshiba (2nd from right); Sharon Esker (right).
As 2019 and the decade comes to a close, I want to share how the many changes and new directions reshaping the industry are impacting our focus for 2020 and beyond.
To better serve our audience and stay on top of the dynamic transformations in the independent dealer channel, we are 100% focused on broadening the breadth and scope of our content with business intelligence and analysis that will push our editorial content peripheries of recent years. This month’s Economics Matters feature article is a prime example of the coverage we are planning on global economics and U.S. monetary and fiscal policies, and how those financial arenas specifically impact the day-to-day operations of the independent dealer channel.
You’ll also see us hyper-focused on matters of importance to business entrepreneurs, such as mergers, acquisitions, and expansion; hiring and retention of talent; diversification and transformation; succession planning and sustainability; marketing and branding; and financial management and business expansion, to name a few.
As for topics central to all independent dealers, coverage of IT Services is at the top of our target list of topics for 2020, along with more coverage of cybersecurity issues, production print labeling, and inkjet – both up and downstream.
We are reordering our editorial lineup in 2020 and are introducing two new themes: Sustainability (February) and Diversification (April). We’re going to take one of our most popular features – our virtual panel series—and expand them beyond our traditional vertical focus and instead create panels with experts and thought leaders from multiple disciplines in order to provide a broader perspective on key issues in the dealer channel. We’re also exploring how to bring these panels to life with live events at select dealer group meetings. Stay tuned!
What’s most exciting for us as we look ahead to next year? We’ll be celebrating the 35th anniversary of our Annual
Awards & Charities Dinner and are making plans to make our 2020 event the best yet (although the 34th Annual Awards & Charities Dinner will be hard to top!). Five is a big number for us in the new year as we’ll also be hosting our Fifth Annual Women Influencers Brunch. This event has become such a tremendous source of pride for all of us at The Cannata Report and we are so grateful to everyone in the industry who has embraced it and helped make it such a must-attend companion event to the Cannata Dinner.
Other highlights ahead: 2020 is a drupa year and Scott Cullen and I have just confirmed our plans for the trip to Düsseldorf in June.
From all of us at The Cannata Report, we wish everyone a healthy and prosperous new year.
See you on the road.
