Let’s Connect the Aviation and Aerospace Community

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues along its devastating path, the aviation and aerospace community is doing everything possible to keep each other safe while moving forward (and increasingly upward). For our part, the Aviation Week Network is supporting the industry with crucial information and data to help navigate the crisis and ultimately recover and grow again.

The demand for trusted, actionable content has exceeded our wildest expectations, and our teams of editors, analysts and event producers have significantly ramped up their efforts to deliver more. We are all proud to be able to help you know, predict and connect during this unprecedented time.

 

There is much, much more to do, and increasingly it will revolve around connecting with each other directly. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get back on an airplane to interact with peers and customers in a face-to-face environment. For the past 25 years, our event business has been a catalyst for connecting the industry at conferences and tradeshows around the world—from our big MRO shows to SpeedNews, Routes and CAPA Summits. But the sad reality is that face-to-face events will remain “grounded” in the near term, even as the need to network, share information, buy-sell and build relationships grows more intense. For us, that has meant finding new and innovative ways to satisfy the human need to interact:

  • Our webinar series has topped 80,000 registered viewers, attracting aerospace professionals and senior executives from around the world. These will continue.
  • Look for more elaborate virtual events that not only include video-delivered content but also digital marketplaces for showcasing products and services and generating leads, with meeting and matchmaking tools and organized networking time. We can’t totally emulate the networking of a face-to-face event, but you’ll be surprised at how well some of the new tools perform in that regard.
  • Aerospace & Defense Week (actually spanning two weeks from July 10 to July 24) will continue the industry’s mid-year ritual of getting together in Farnborough or Paris to look at the future. Our editors will bring deep new forward-looking content under the theme “Reset – Flight Paths Forward” and present it in multiple digital formats, including interviews with leading aerospace CEOs and Tech Talks. Virtual MRO Asia will convene airlines, OEMs and suppliers from across Asia and the world to network on a new matchmaking platform and discuss fleet plans, aircraft reentry to service and MRO demands for the short and long term.

Both events will showcase the newly launched Aviation Week Marketplace, an expanded version of our successful MRO Links, now incorporating suppliers and buyers from the aerospace sector. Some 1,000 companies and their products will be featured to create a new, convenient sourcing resource for buyers across the industry.

While we are working on these large digital events—and more in air transport, aerospace and MRO—we are still planning for several face-to-face events in the fall where we have permission from governments and the confidence in a safe and productive environment. You can keep abreast of all of our coming events at AviationWeek.com.

The Aviation Week Network is committed to helping the industry through this crisis as we have so many times in our past 103 years. Since March, we have published more than 17,000 pieces of content, including 2,600 analytical articles, to help show how our industry will deal with and make its way out of this unprecedented crisis. We’re looking forward to the clouds breaking and to connecting with you very soon.

Greg Hamilton

Greg Hamilton is president of Aviation Week Network, a division of Informa Markets. He is responsible for the overall strategy and direction for Aviation Week Network’s digital, event, print and data/analytics services covering all aspects of aviation, aerospace and defense.