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Weve spent the better part of the past few years glued to our screensclicking, swiping, streaming. Endless tabs, endless scrolls. And yet, despite all the infinite access, we’re still craving the one thing the web cannot render: real presence. That collective craving has rewritten the rules of marketing. Five years after COVID, brands are finding the antidote to Zoom fatigue by showing up in person again. Canva, the Australian graphic design platform, is moving quickly to meet this demand with the launch of the Canva World Tour, a global initiative spanning 40 cities across 30 countries and five continents, with the goal of training one million people in just a month. The tour features 250 workshops and community-led sessions, from campus pop-ups to hands-on tutorials and certification programs. With a massive online footprint1 in 24 internet users worldwideCanva boasts 240 million monthly active users across 190 countries and 100 languages, generating more than 370 designs every second. Amid a booming online presence, its move to live events is about taking the experience from URL to IRL, Jimmy Knowles, Canva’s global head of experiential, told Fast Company. Its not the first time Canva has embraced face-to-face interactions. This year, Canva Create, the companys annual event, had a tentpole moment with 105 speakers across six stages, drawing more than 4,300 attendees in person at California’s SoFi Stadium, with 6.6 million tuning in online. Knowles describes the events as a chance to be unapologetically ourselves, adding, Tech brands are all straight lines and rounded boxes, as opposed to coloring outside the lines. [Photo: Canva] Experience the economy Canva’s headfirst dive into experiential marketing is perhaps no surprise. As reported by eMarketer, experiential marketing spending has surged past $128 billion, with activity signaling a resurgent comeback above pre-pandemic levels. According to the 2023 Trust Report from live events company Freeman, 77% of consumers say their trust in a brand increases following a live event interaction, and 64% retain positive impressions of brands they engage with in person. Building on insights like this, Canva designed its world tour to connect with people directly on their own terms. This enables us to get super local and relevant to the communities were serving, Knowles explains. Kristine Segrist, Canva’s global head of consumer marketing, adds, Meeting them where they are makes the experience feel immediate and personal. The tour took off at the Texas State Fair in Dallas and will culminate in Sydney, Australia, with a 4,000-person keynote and, according to Canva, a major product announcement.
Category:
E-Commerce
Vice President JD Vance on Sunday said there will be deeper cuts to the federal workforce the longer the government shutdown goes on, adding to the uncertainty facing hundreds of thousands who are already furloughed without pay amid the stubborn stalemate in Congress.Vance warned that as the federal shutdown entered its 12th day, the new cuts would be “painful,” even as he said the Trump administration worked to ensure that the military is paid this week and some services would be preserved for low-income Americans, including food assistance.Still, hundreds of thousands of government workers have been furloughed in recent days and, in a court filing on Friday, the Office of Management and Budget said well over 4,000 federal employees would soon be fired in conjunction with the shutdown. The effects of the shutdown also grew Sunday with the Smithsonian announcing its museums, research centers and the National Zoo are temporarily closed going forward for lack of funding.“The longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts are going to be,” Vance said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “To be clear, some of these cuts are going to be painful. This is not a situation that we relish. This is not something that we’re looking forward to, but the Democrats have dealt us a pretty difficult set of cards.”Labor unions have already filed a lawsuit to stop the aggressive move by President Donald Trump’s budget office, which goes far beyond what usually happens in a government shutdown, further inflaming tensions between the Republicans who control Congress and the Democratic minority.The shutdown began on Oct. 1 after Democrats rejected a short-term funding fix and demanded that the bill include an extension of federal subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The expiration of those subsidies at the end of the year will result in monthly cost increases for millions.Trump and Republican leaders have said they are open to negotiations on the health subsidies, but insist the government must reopen first.For now, negotiations are virtually nonexistent. Dug in as ever, House leaders from both parties pointed fingers at each other in rival Sunday appearances on “Fox News Sunday.”“We have repeatedly made clear that we will sit down with anyone, anytime, anyplace,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. “Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It’s unfortunate they’ve taken a my-way-or-the-highway approach.”House Speaker Mike Johnson blamed Democrats and said they “seem not to care” about the pain the shutdown is inflicting.“They’re trying their best to distract the American people from the simple fact that they’ve chosen a partisan fight so that they can prove to their Marxist rising base in the Democratic Party that they’re willing to fight Trump and Republicans,” he said. Progressive activists, meanwhile, expressed new support for the Democratic Party’s position in the shutdown fight.Ezra Levin, co-founder of the leading progressive protest group Indivisible, said he is “feeling good about the strength of Dem position.” He pointed to fractures in the GOP, noting that Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly warned last week that health care insurance premiums would skyrocket for average Americans including her own adult children if nothing is done.“Trump and GOP are rightfully taking the blame for the shutdown and for looming premium increases,” Levin said. “Their chickens are coming home to roost.”And yet the Republican administration and its congressional allies are showing no signs of caving to Democratic demands or backing away from threats to use the opportunity to pursue deeper cuts to the federal workforce.Thousands of employees at the departments of Education, Treasury, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, are set to receive layoff notices, according to spokespeople for the agencies and union representatives for federal workers.“You hear a lot of Senate Democrats say, well, how can Donald Trump possibly lay off all of these federal workers?” Vance said. “Well, the Democrats have given us a choice between giving low-income women their food benefits and paying our troops on the one hand, and, on the other hand, paying federal bureaucrats.”Democrats say the firings are illegal and unnecessary.“They do not have to do this,” said Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “They do not have to punish people that shouldn’t find themselves in this position.” Steve Peoples, AP National Political Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Companies operating in the rare earths and mining spaces are seeing their share prices soar this morning as President Donald Trumps latest tariff feud with China enter its second week. Heres what you need to know. Whats happened? Last week, President Trump threatened new tariffs on China as high as 100% in retaliation for the country putting export controls on products that contain rare earth elements. Rare earths are a group of elements that actually arent rare, but are hard to find and expensive to mine. The elements also happen to be essential to many industries, including technology, automotive, and defense. Rare earths are critical to these industries because the elements are used in many of the most advanced electronic products made by companies in the above industries, including smartphones, electric vehicles, and missile systems. While the United States has its own rare earth deposits and extraction capabilities, China is one of the worlds largest producers of rare earth materials, and disruption in the Chinese rare earths supply chain could have negative knock-on effects in the production of electronic equipment that U.S. companies and the military rely on. Rare earth stocks soar again After already rising on Friday in the wake of Trump’s tariff threat, the stock prices of rare earth companies and adjacent mining companies are up again in premarket trading today (Monday, October 13). Those stock price rises include the following companies, all of which are up in premarket trading on Monday morning as of the time of this writing. USA Rare Earth, Inc. (Nasdaq: USAR): up 22% Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE: UUUU): up 14% MP Materials Corp. (NYSE: MP): up 10% Lithium Americas Corp. (NYSE: LAC): up 4.5% Trilogy Metals Inc. (NYSE: TMQ): up 9.7% Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX): up 3.8% Besides the ongoing threat of increased restrictions on foreign companies obtaining rare earths from China, another factor may also be contributing to the surge in share prices for rare earth companies and mining stocks today. The Financial Times has reported that the Pentagon is seeking to purchase as much as $1 billion in critical materials to stockpile, including cobalt and antimony. The Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) would store the materials to give the U.S. a buffer in the event they become harder to obtain in the months ahead. Any increase in defense spending on those materials and other related materials is likely to benefit the companies that supply them or can help mine them. Trump says dont worry Trumps threat to impose a further 100% tariff on Chinese goods in retaliation for its rare earth export controls sent stock markets tumbling on Friday. In a move perhaps meant to alleviate investor fears, Trump posted what could be taken as a calming message (in Trumpian terms) on Tuesday. Dont worry about China, it will all be fine! the president posted on his Truth Social social network. Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesnt want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!! Although stock futures did rise early Monday following Trump’s post, as of the time of this writing, there are no signs that China is rethinking its latest export controls on rare earths. Indeed, reduced rare earth exports seem to have been gaining momentum in the country for a while now. As Reuters reported, Chinas rare earth exports plunged by 31% in September versus the month earlier. Is this a trend that will continue? No one knows for sure. But until China and America officially come to terms on rare earths, investors seem confident that Americas rare earth companies may benefit from the geopolitical dramaat least for now.
Category:
E-Commerce
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