• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, September 9, 2024

Time, the venerable publication started in 1923, is kicking off its fall event season today with its Time100 Women’s Leadership Forum. 

The program focuses on “extraordinary women who are shaping the future," and includes such panel speakers as Kerry Washington, Brooke Shields, Ashlyn Harris, and Shaina Taub, and partner speakers like Dorothy Kilroy from Oura and Krista Berger from Mattel. 

"Now more than ever, it’s essential to amplify the voices of women who are driving meaningful change,” says Jessica Sibley. chief executive officer of Time. “We are proud to convene these leaders at our first-ever TIME100 Women’s Leadership Forum, and grateful to our partners—Barbie, Deloitte and OURA—for their commitment to building a more equitable and inclusive world.” 

Next on the calendar, on track to be very popular events, are the Time100 Climate Leadership Forum in September, and the Time100 Health Leadership Forum in October. 

Events like these are a new and exciting source of revenue, and should be on every publisher’s radar.  

“Prior to the pandemic, we were doing three events per year, now we’re on track to do more than 30,” says Dan Macsai, chief event officer at Time. 

He adds that from a revenue standpoint, “we grew 84% last year, and these forums have been core to that growth,” Macsai adds.  

The events, which are free to attend, are sponsorship driven: Partners can align in “a variety of ways from branding and product integration to program integration,” hei continues. 

Revenue aside, why did Time decide to lean in to this format tied to its many lists of 100 leaders? 

“Galas and award shows are fun to attend,” Macsai says. “What we heard consistently from our guests was, ‘this is great, but we want to have deeper conversations with each other.’ As a journalist, l loved hearing that.” 

So Time turned to leadership panels that last 30 minutes as opposed to three-minute speeches. 

Each panel is covered editorially, and clips from the panels appear across all of Time’s social platforms. 

Then there’s the subject matter: Time is careful to choose areas in which it has expertise. “We’re not picking sectors at random,” says Macsai, who has been with Time for 12 years. 

What’s next? 

“Next is to keep building on what’s working,” Macsai answers. I’m pretty sure we’re going to launch one forum next year, and we’re also thinking of expanding into full-day summits next year.”

Time’s mission, as laid out in a direct mail piece in 1923, was to cram into 24 pages “a complete account of the week’s developments in politics, art, science, foreign news, sport, books, and all the other things that interest you.” 

That hasn’t changed much. And Macsai concludes that given its standing, its multimedia approach and the participation by Time100 leaders, “Time is a giant megaphone.”