On October 7th, Forbes hosted their annual Small Business Summit to equip America’s 30M+ SMBs with the guidance and tools needed to persevere during one of the most unpredictable times in recent history.

CommerceNext IRL returned in a hybrid model on September 28th and 29th, live-streaming in-person content from New York City to virtual viewers around the world. Over 600 attendees had the opportunity to hear from retail executives - including Coach, Wayfair, JustFab, Everlane, E.L.F. Beauty, Patagonia and Clorox - about the future of customer engagement and commerce.

Last week, the US Small Business Association (SBA) hosted the annual National Small Business Week (NSBW), an event that has taken place every year since 1963 in an effort to recognize the contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. 

Messaging is an intimate medium for sharing private views and sentiments. It is a cocktail-party whisper in digital form, as one user of WhatsApp, a service owned by Facebook, put it. Now some of the world’s biggest brands are venturing into this personal realm.

Among the many disruptions caused by the global pandemic that largely defined the year 2020 was the increased importance of excelling at delivering great experiences to customers — not just sometimes, but all the time and in real time.

Over the last few years, we have seen a significant shift to using messaging to get information and engage with businesses across the world. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has only further truly highlighted the urgency for digitization as business messaging platforms and apps have become a lifeline for people and businesses to connect when there is no other alternative.