A Year of Free, Virtual Content

As COVID-19 shifted our lives online, MSCI worked quickly to provide the industrial metals community with fresh, meaningful, and relevant virtual content that would help our member companies manage the new-abnormal time of rapid change and uncertainty. Many of these events were free and open to every member company employee.

Through our free webinar series, for example, we offered 31 discussions that featured metals company executives, trusted third-party experts, MSCI’s economics consulting firms, and academic leaders from MSCI’s education partners. The topics we touched on ranged from operations and safety to the economy to technology and leadership, self-care and wellness.

In addition to being informative, these sessions were popular, reaching about 110 member company employees, on average, during each webinar. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions during each webinar.

If you missed these discussions, don’t worry – we were able to record many of them. On our website, you’ll find the following sessions:

Leadership:

• October 2020: “Agility and Discernment Given a New Cadence of Change” with Peter Boumgarden, professor of practice, strategy and organization at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.
• October 2020: “The 2020 Election – A Metals Perspective” with experienced political analysts Donna Brazile and David Urban.
• September 2020: “The Future of Industrial Metals Sales” with Dr. Samuel Chun of the Olin Business School at Washington University.

Economic-Related Issues:

• December 2020: “Keybridge Quarterly Economic Update” featuring Keybridge President Rob Wescott and Elizabeth Rust, senior economist.
• September 2020: “Governing in the Midst of COVID-19” with Peter Beinart, CNN commentator, award-winning author, and perceptive observer of the current political landscape. Beinart discussed the effects the pandemic has had on both major political parties and U.S. foreign policy.
• June 2020: “Keybridge Quarterly Economic Update,” again featuring Wescott and Rust.
• June 2020: “COVID and the Financial Markets” with Todd Milbourn, professor of finance at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.
• May 2020: “The Realities of Offshoring” Keybridge Research Senior Economist Elizabeth Rust.
• May 2020: “Overcoming Commoditization of Metals,” which featured experts from McMann & Ransford who explored the strategies of differentiation employed by metals distribution market leaders.
• April 2020: a webinar with Dr. Samuel Chun who discussed various business-related aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• April 2020: “COVID-19 Economic Impact Webinar” featuring Keybridge’s Wescott and Rust.

Operations and Safety:

• December 2020: “Taking the Pulse of Metals Industry Technology,” which discussed the biggest technology challenges and the biggest opportunities and how companies are connecting to customers.
• August 2020: “Engagement and Communication to Stay Focused on Safety During COVID-19” with Shmuel Cohen, director of environmental health and safety for Steel Warehouse.
• July 2020: “Safety and Automation” with Kurt Fowler of CareGo.
• June 2020: “Guidance and Tips for Managing Newly Remote Work Teams,” which offered advice for adopting and administering remote work arrangements.
• May 2020: “COVID-19 Operations and Safety Issues” with Joe Galasso, corporate director of health, safety and environment for Samuel, Son & Co.
• May 2020: “Getting Back to Work Safely” with Dr. John Koehler MD, CME, and Brian Dudgeon, account manager and senior safety professional with Optimum Safety.
• May 2020: “Safety Fireside Chat – Workforce Safety During the Pandemic” with Steve Bullard, general manager of safety for Coilplus, Inc.; Steve Yates, CEO of Optimum Safety; and Brian Dudgeon, account manager and senior safety professional with Optimum Safety.
• May 2020: “COVID-19 Business Travel,” which examined the future of company-related travel.

COVID-Specific Government Stimulus Webinars:

• April 2020: “COVID-19: Guidance on U.S. Stimulus Business Provisions and Essential Business Designations” with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
• April 2020: “Update on U.S. COVID-19 Stimulus Programs” with Ron Eidshaug and Erik Rust from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Links to these sessions are here.

Each of these webinars is one-hour – the perfect length for catching up over the holidays. After you’re done watching, stay tuned because we have more in store in 2021.

Questions – or ideas for what you’d like to hear in one of our webinars? Contact me at cmarti@msci.org.