It wasn't too long ago (2016 as a matter of fact) that you could not sing the song "Happy Birthday" in public, in a movie, or on television without paying a licensing fee to the Warner Chappell Music company. Although the song is sung to another melody long in the public domain ("Good Morning To You"), the origins of the song that we know here in the US is somewhat muddled.
Many publishing professionals like myself would prefer to be meeting our global colleagues in person, but until such time that the world will allow such gatherings, these virtual shows have offered a way to keep in touch as well as to make new connections that we might not otherwise have made.
Even the world of rights faced a shift in business as licensors first paused to consider how their business might change in the face of multiple book industry conferences canceling and going virtual. First the London Book Fair was cancelled only two weeks before it was scheduled to open, then Barcelona, then New York, and on and on up until the Beijing Book Fair went fully virtual.
