How FT Live is changing its business model

Brian Carruthers

This article considers how the Financial Times’ (FT) events business has pivoted to digital during the pandemic.

“Life before COVID was a nice life,” reflected Orson Francescone, who joined Financial Times Live (FT Live), the pink ’un’s events division, as managing director in November 2019. Back then FT Live was running a large portfolio of 125 annual events around the world. These were primarily based in the financial capitals of the world and covered not just banking and finance but also “pharmaceuticals, technology, transportation [and] cybersecurity: wherever we thought there was a need to connect with some of our audiences via live events”.

Less than six months later he faced a dramatically different situation as the pandemic and...

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