When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in March of last year, Real Estate Publishing Company had to immediately pivot from live events — the company’s lifeblood — to virtual summits, online webinars and hybrid events. This took countless hours of work, plenty of creativity and a commitment from all team members.
The results? At the beginning of 2020, the company, which publishes Illinois Real Estate Journal, Chicago Industrial Properties, Minnesota Real Estate Journal, Midwest Real Estate News and REDNews, projected that its virtual summits and events would generate from 9,000 to 10,000 guests for the entire year. Instead? As of January 7, Real Estate Publishing Company had notched more than 50,000 viewers between live events, webinars, hybrid events and YouTube replays since COVID-19 shut down live events.
“In mid-March, when COVID became very real in the event industry, we didn’t know what to expect,” said Todd Phillips, POWER 30 Host and chief financial officer of Real Estate Publishing Corporation. “Frankly, as the CFO, I wasn’t sure we would survive. But we reinvented ourselves. I reinvented myself, going from CFO to webinar host. And people have responded in amazing numbers. I would not have imagined hitting 15,000 viewers, let alone 50,000.”
Real Publishing Corporation’s reinvention is far from over. Phillips said that throughout 2021, the company will adopt video and social media into everything it does.
“We found that we have hundreds of hours of video of the top real estate minds in the nation,” Phillips said. “We are excited to bring more of that to our audience across platforms.”
And who was that viewer who pushed the company to that impressive mark of 50,000 views? That viewer was Anthony Tarantino, president of Tarantino Properties in Houston.
“Going on camera is a different way to start my day,” Phillips said. “But the response has been overwhelming. I am honored and excited to see where this takes us.”
