Updated: 4/28/2021 5:28 p.m.
Informa Markets’ Global Licensing Group — organizers of Licensing Expo — have made the decision to cancel the in-person event this year.
Instead, Licensing Expo — the world’s largest licensing event — will take place in a free-to-attend, fully virtual format, Aug. 24-26 in an effort to “allow more people to connect, learn, strike deals and discover new intellectual property (IP).”
“We’ve heard from our industry, and the best way to serve the international market in 2021 is to provide in-person experiences later this year, as well as a rich online experience that everyone can be a part of this summer,” says Anna Knight, vice president, licensing, Informa Markets. “We’ve all felt the impact of not being able to gather in-person in 2020, and while the speed of recovery is promising, we serve a truly global market. Feedback from Licensing Expo customers and partners indicates that August is still too soon for the majority of the licensing community to properly plan and execute participation in an in-person event of this size and magnitude with continued restrictions on international and corporate travel. Our mission remains to create the most valuable platforms for our industry to connect and grow, and therefore we have decided to focus our efforts on our virtual experience in August, followed by in-person events in Q4 and beyond.”
Currently, Brand Licensing & Innovation Summit and Brand Licensing Europe are still slated to take place in-person this fall.
Licensing Expo was initially slated to take place Aug. 10-12, 2021 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. The event is set to return to Mandalay Bay next year for Licensing Expo 2022, May 24-26.
Additional information about the event can be found on the Licensing Expo website.
