Citing safety concerns amid a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, the Liberty Fashion & Lifestyle Fairs, Atlanta Shoe Market and MICAM America and MAGIC trade shows have canceled their August and September physical trade shows. The industry events are the latest cancelations in a list that includes Outdoor Retailer, FFANY Market Week, Grassroots Connect and the RIA KICK Show, many of which have announced virtual or online elements in their stead. Here, Kelly Helfman, president of WWDMagic, Project Womens, MICAM Americas and Sourcing at Magic, talks about next steps.

1. What spurred you to cancel the physical show?

Our fashion community is at the heart of every decision we make, so with this guiding us, the decision was two- fold. There are continued concerns around health and safety, and we felt that with this unknown — while we wished and hoped it would have been in a better place — this was the right decision to make now in order to protect our community. Additionally, since we have always planned to launch both a live and digital event this fall, and our digital event launch is well underway with the brand webinar trainings happening each week and retailers already registered for the event, we knew that we still offering our community a great environment to conduct business, connect and learn, much like we do at our live events.

2. What will change, if anything, about the virtual event in light of the physical event being canceled?

‍While we had already planned on a robust lineup of educational content for the digital event, we will be shifting even more from our live event into our digital trade event, [with] more educational seminars and more retail resources. Expect this in addition to the already planned curated content — which is exclusively available to our digital marketplaces — shoppable trend report, themed editorial roundups, and product look books to name a few.

3. Are plans still in place for a physical show in early 2021?

‍Yes! We have a lot of great ideas to amplify the physical experience at our show in the new year, so when we debut both the physical and digital events together in early 2021 expect to see even greater enhancements.

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