What a magnificent ride my time at Semafor has been, building with Ben and Justin Smith and the high octane team members there a gleaming rocket of editorial ambition and excellence — in newsletters, editorial events, and powerful new networks. For two and a half years, I’ve puzzled each day about how to help make Semafor better and more desired than its peers, more impactful and necessary. I have been obsessed with Semafor and its lead politics newsletter Principals, and I loved my journey there and salute the now huge team for all they have accomplished and now they will continue to do so without me.
Gore Vidal once said, “Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” I wish I had that kind of confidence in all things, but I know I have it in one — and that is my personal obsession with the evolution of events and the dynamics of convening. This is the one area in which I feel like an artist, though that may be delusion or narcissism, and I have thoughts on what needs to come next in the events space. I dream about the nuances and nuts and bolts of events, of how to be a better host and moderator. It’s an obsession. To do what I really want to do, I need to be untethered from the gravitational rules of editorial requirements, which I know extremely well and respect but it’s time to paint outside the lines. Such frames are vital — and I will tell all associations and firms out there now that you can’t go wrong with the high-quality execution of editorial events by the Semafor team now led by Gina Chon, Maggie Soergel, Jamie Lehmann, and Meera Pattni. They are fantastic. You should do events with Semafor, and I am rooting for Semafor to evolve and grow. But the world refuses to be small, and I need to roam out further.
My new-ish partners roaming with me into new territory are like characters from Mission Impossible. Our mission tapes seem to self-destruct after we hear them though everyone knows their synchronized role — and then we conspire, plan, and execute fascinating, consequential “white label” gatherings under the brands of our sponsors, or under the banner of just “an idea.” Ideas are powerful. It’s different. Unique. It’s like soaring above a conventional world that doesn’t know yet how to change and being much freer.
We have created a new company, Widehall LLC — and launched it quietly last November and have built it step by step since. Wow, it’s been eight months that Widehall has been in operation, humming along quietly and changing some of the terrain of the events industry. My appreciation to Semafor for giving me the latitude to explore this track while simultaneously working with Semafor colleagues to dream up franchises like Semafor’s big World Economy Summit and Mystery Gala at the Mellon Auditorium. Pretty darn good I think.
And now we are launching into a next phase less invisibly — and my partners are Widehall President Richard Vague, a businessman who had a hand in creating the affinity credit cards probably in your wallet on which you store up hotel and airline points as his innovations in this area became the basis of Barclay’s and Chase’s huge credit card operations. Also Widehall EVP Niharika Acharya, who I think has all the qualities of a brilliant early 20th century battleground field marshall who can run a staggeringly complex operation with the utmost delicacy and finesse. She worked with me at Atlantic Media both at National Journal and The Atlantic in the editorial events division, and then I followed her to The Hill where she led events – and we both worked together for the first year of events at Semafor. And then there is Widehall Partnerships VP Meredith Crimmins Hoffman, who knows the contours of the community that likes to invest in events — events of all kinds, not just editorial events — and she knows how to guide them into a new terrain of a different world of gatherings and convening sizzle that Washington, New York and the nation candidly have not yet experienced. And then….Widehall Events Senior Producer Kara King, who sculpts and builds events that are smart and quippy in a way the aforementioned Gore Vidal would have loved with a Churchillian stubbornness about never giving up, never surrendering, and just simply doing all that it takes as she quietly simmers, to win.
Are you still here? Wow. Too kind. I know that this is long, but this is a joyful and happy note saluting my friends and colleagues at Semafor — but also telling the world that Widehall is something to check out, and if you want to dream big with us and figure out the new contours of a very different events landscape in the nation, call us up and see if we have ideas or products that work for you. There are some areas in which we won’t compete — but the world of business, associations, and advocacy is huge and we are going to take things in a new and pretty compelling direction at Widehall.
Wish us well! Love and respect to the entire Semafor team! And stay tuned for lots of invites from me and us. We are going to have a big Widehall party soon.
— Steve Clemons
PS — Some other new stuff that I’m adding to “our work” is that I have been made a contributing editor of National Interest and will be supporting many of the activities of the Center for the National Interest. Secondly, I am now Co-Chair of the GLOBSEC US Initiative. GLOBSEC’s value in these times as a consequential research institution and convener of those committed to preserving democracy and stability around the world is inestimable. Always looking for new GLOBSEC supporters — and let me know if you want to be on our invite lists. AND also I will be helping to launch STATION DC, a new tech hub in the nation’s capital (and you can join us for the announcement — with global national security leaders, technologists and entrepreneurs, and city officials — on the margins of NATO To The Future, here. Sign up!
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