Events

New Orleans – September 23, 2026 -- HOTWORX, the 24-hour infrared sauna fitness franchise, has surpassed 900 open studios worldwide and now serves more than 400,000 members, putting the brand on track to hit 1,000 locations by spring 2027.

Franchise Network Crosses 900 Studios Nearly a Decade After Launch

HOTWORX opened its first studio in Oxford, Miss., in 2017. The brand has since expanded across the United States, Canada, Ireland and Dubai, with 408,693 members recorded this year and new studios in development in Mexico and Kenya.

Member-to-Owner Pipeline Drives Majority of Franchise Growth

A majority of HOTWORX franchisees joined the system as members before converting to ownership, according to the company. Founder and CEO Stephen P. Smith said the model is working at scale, noting that most owners experienced the infrared workout firsthand before signing a franchise agreement.

Ketchum, Idaho – September 23, 2026 -- Skilled trades workers reach financial break-even by age 19, nearly seven years faster than bachelor's degree holders who hit that mark at 26, according to new commissioned research from truck-storage manufacturer DECKED. The findings, drawn from an economic trajectory study and a proprietary survey of 500 tradespeople, anchor the company's new Built for Those Who Build campaign, launching with a Builder's Day event on Sept. 30 at DECKED's manufacturing facility in Defiance, Ohio.

Chicago – September 23, 2026 -- WovenX Health, a Chicago-based specialty care platform, has won the Industry Disrupter Award at 1871's 19th Annual Momentum Awards for its model expanding access to gastroenterology care.

National GI wait times average 40 days as two-thirds of U.S. counties lack a specialist

One in five Americans is affected by a gastrointestinal condition, yet the average wait for a GI consult has grown to 40 days nationally, according to the company. GI-related visits account for 10% of all emergency department visits, 86% of which WovenX says are avoidable with timely specialty access.

Washington – September 23, 2026 -- Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) has joined the Rare Access Action Project (RAAP), adding a major biopharmaceutical player to a coalition working to resolve coverage and access barriers for rare disease patients.

RAAP expands coalition with BMS to tackle patient access barriers

RAAP, a coalition of patient advocates and life sciences companies, confirmed BMS's membership as part of its ongoing effort to develop policy solutions for structural access and coverage gaps affecting rare disease patients. Michael Eging, Executive Director of RAAP, said BMS brings a long history of scientific innovation and a strong commitment to patients facing serious and complex diseases.

Arlington, Va. – September 23, 2026 -- Eagle Hill Consulting's new HR Technology and Service Delivery Survey finds that 51% of HR professionals spend at least half their workweek on routine, repetitive, or low-value administrative tasks, even as 86% say automation or AI improves the service they deliver to the business.

Fragmented systems undercut technology investment across HR functions

Ninety-one percent of surveyed HR professionals use two or more systems to complete a single task, and 43% rely on three or more. Seventy-eight percent regularly re-enter the same information across multiple platforms, while 68% turn to workarounds such as spreadsheets, shared drives, or manual tracking to get work done.

Washington – September 23, 2026 -- Grain Management has appointed Amran Hussein, a 23-year veteran of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, as General Counsel to lead its legal and governance functions and join the digital infrastructure investment firm's leadership team.

Hussein exits 23-year Paul Weiss tenure to join Grain leadership team

Based in New York, Hussein spent more than two decades at Paul, Weiss advising sponsors of private investment funds on formation, governance, secondary transactions, joint ventures, and investment management M&A. She has worked with Grain for more than a decade as outside counsel prior to this internal appointment.

San Francisco – September 23, 2026 -- None of the 15 major institutions interviewed by Bitwise Asset Management reduced their crypto allocations during a roughly 50% market drawdown between Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, with several increasing positions instead, according to the firm's new Institutional Crypto Adoption report.

Bitwise, a crypto asset manager overseeing $9 billion in client assets, conducted in-depth interviews with senior investment professionals at endowments, foundations, public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, multi-family offices, investment consultants, and public companies to determine what institutions hold, why, and what would trigger a sale.

Delray Beach – – September 23, 2026 -- The global Workforce Management (WFM) market is projected to grow from $10.6 billion in 2026 to $17.2 billion by 2031, a compound annual growth rate of 10.1%, according to a new report from MarketsandMarkets. The market stood at $9.6 billion in 2025, with North America alone accounting for $3.4 billion of that total.

Analytics and optimization tools post the fastest segment growth

Within the market, workforce optimization and analytics is expected to expand at a 13.2% CAGR, the highest of any solution category, as enterprises push to use data for staffing decisions and labor planning. The broader solutions segment held the largest share of the market in 2025, while services are forecast to register the fastest growth rate as organizations outsource implementation, integration, and managed support for increasingly complex scheduling, timekeeping, and compliance systems.

Durham, N.C. – September 23, 2026 -- Avalara, Inc. unveiled Avalara Aviator, an AI agent hub designed to cut manual tax and compliance work from days to minutes, at its CRUSH customer and partner conference.

Avalara Aviator connects specialized AI agents to close gaps between automated compliance tasks

For years, tax software automated discrete steps such as calculations, filings, and exemption certificate management, leaving finance teams to manually bridge the gaps, chasing approvals, interpreting reports, and building business logic. Avalara says it is the first company to unify specialized AI agents, compliance workflows, and its trusted tax technology into one connected agent hub. Customers interact via Avi, an orchestrator agent that delegates to lead agents overseeing research, certificates, and returns, validating and executing work while leaving judgment-based decisions to humans.

Sunnyvale, Calif. – September 23, 2026 -- FlashGrid Inc. has released version 26.05 of FlashGrid Cluster and FlashGrid Server with support for Oracle AI Database 26ai, Oracle's next long-term support release, enabling enterprises to run the AI-native database platform on Oracle RAC across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

Oracle AI Database 26ai brings over 300 new capabilities to enterprise workloads

Oracle AI Database 26ai integrates AI functions directly into the database engine, adding more than 300 new capabilities spanning artificial intelligence, developer productivity, performance, and mission-critical availability. Oracle designed the release to let organizations build AI-powered applications while retaining the security, governance, and transactional consistency standards of Oracle Database.

Shenzhen – – September 23, 2026 -- Lenovo has launched the ThinkVision P27UL-40 IJP OLED monitor, its first 27-inch UHD Thunderbolt docking display built for commercial and remote-collaboration environments, powered by TCL CSOT's inkjet-printing OLED panel technology.

Panel specs target color accuracy and text clarity for professional workflows

The 27-inch UHD panel runs at 120Hz with 3840 x 2160 resolution, 99% DCI-P3 and 100% sRGB color gamut coverage, and carries VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification. TCL CSOT's Real Stripe RGB pixel layout in the IJP OLED panel is designed to cut text color fringing, a longstanding OLED weakness in office and content-creation applications.

Helsinki – September 23, 2026 -- Helsinki has ranked first on the Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Index for the third consecutive year, with results published Wednesday, September 23, 2026, scoring 93% across more than 70 sustainability indicators.

Helsinki scores 93% while over 100 global cities compete on sustainability metrics

The GDS Index evaluates tourist destinations across four categories: environmental performance, supply chains, destination management and social sustainability. More than 100 cities committed to sustainability were assessed in this year's comparison, and Helsinki again topped the ranking.

"Securing the top position for the third consecutive year demonstrates that sustainability is not a one-off achievement but a long-term strategic commitment," said Nina Vesterinen, Director of Tourism, City of Helsinki.

Vero Beach, Fla. – September 23, 2026 -- Riverside Theatre, Florida's largest independent nonprofit professional theatre, has appointed Robert (Bob) Gibilterra as Chief Financial Officer, effective October 2026, placing a nearly three-decade Viacom finance veteran in charge of the organization's next growth phase.

Gibilterra will oversee accounting, budgeting and long-range financial planning as Riverside expands its campus

The CFO role will manage financial operations, risk management, and strategic planning as the Vero Beach-based theatre advances plans for a more flexible, expanded campus. Gibilterra relocates to Vero Beach to take up the position.

Dallas – September 23, 2026 -- TGI Fridays has signed a development agreement with Meerab Hospitality to scale to 15 restaurants across Pakistan, marking the brand's second market signing this month as it pursues a global target of 1,000+ restaurants and $2 billion in annual revenue by 2030.

First flagship restaurant targets Lahore's Hyatt Regency within 12 months

Meerab Hospitality, the franchise and development arm of Meerab Properties, plans to open its first TGI Fridays location at the Hyatt Regency Hotel complex in Lahore within the next 12 months. The company will develop restaurants across Pakistan over the next decade through a mix of company-owned and approved sub-franchised units, according to Pervaiz Iqbal Shahid, Founder and Group CEO of Meerab Properties.

Chicago – September 23, 2026 -- Fifty-six Taiwanese manufacturers closed out the Taiwan Flagship Showcase at IMTS 2026 with a metal processing exhibitor securing direct alignment with a U.S. manufacturer needing local service capabilities for overseas operations, opening a long-term entry point into the semiconductor supply chain.

TAITRA draws 250-plus attendees to Chicago networking events

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) ran the showcase September 14–19 at McCormick Place, drawing more than 250 combined attendees to its opening ceremony and Taiwan Night event. Representatives from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, the Association for Manufacturing Technology, Siemens and HEIDENHAIN attended alongside trade press including Machine Design and Cutting Tool Engineering.

North America – September 23, 2026 -- EZ Texting has launched Rich Communication Services (RCS) Business Messaging across its platform, giving its base of more than 230,000 small and mid-sized business customers access to branded sender identities, verified badges and interactive chat tools previously limited to large enterprises.

RCS replaces anonymous numbers with verified brand identities

The upgrade allows businesses to swap generic phone numbers for branded sender profiles carrying verification badges, a shift aimed at increasing customer trust and message deliverability compared with standard SMS.

Interactive carousels let customers browse products inside the chat window

The platform supports up to 10 high-definition cards per carousel, enabling in-chat product browsing designed to cut friction in the sales process. HD media support extends to images and video files up to 100MB, exceeding the size limits of traditional MMS.

Montréal – September 23, 2026 -- CGI (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A) has entered a strategic go-to-market partnership with D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NASDAQ: QBTS) to embed quantum computing into enterprise operations across logistics, transportation and retail.

CGI to integrate D-Wave's Advantage2 quantum computer into its technology services portfolio

Under the agreement, CGI will add D-Wave's Advantage2 quantum computer and hybrid solvers to its advanced technology services, giving clients direct access to quantum-enhanced tools for industrial production planning, energy grid optimization and asset maintenance scheduling. The partnership builds on more than a year of prior collaboration between the two companies to develop enterprise quantum use cases.

Delray Beach – September 23, 2026 -- The global wire & cable market is projected to grow from USD 224.8 billion in 2026 to USD 296.3 billion by 2031, a 5.7% CAGR, according to MarketsandMarkets. Demand is pivoting from construction-led consumption toward grid reinforcement, renewable power evacuation, electric mobility, and AI-driven data-center build-out.

Asia Pacific outpaces global growth at 6.5% CAGR

Rapid data-center and 5G rollout across China, India, and Southeast Asia, combined with semiconductor manufacturing investment, railway electrification, and smart-city development, is driving Asia Pacific's outsized expansion. Regional cable manufacturers are scaling domestic production capacity to capture this demand.

Schaffhausen, Switzerland – – September 23, 2026 -- Garmin Ltd. (NYSE: GRMN) will hold its third quarter 2026 earnings conference call on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. EDT, the company confirmed.

Garmin to release Q3 2026 results before market open on October 28

The earnings release will be distributed prior to the opening bell on the same day, ahead of the scheduled call with company executives.

Investors must register online to access dial-in details

Shareholders and investors seeking to join the call are required to register via the GRMN Q3 2026 Earnings Call Webcast page, after which they will receive dial-in information and a conference ID.

Live webcast will remain archived for one year

A live webcast of the call will be available through Garmin's investor relations website on the News & Events page, with an archived version accessible for twelve months following the event.

El Mirage, Arizona – September 23, 2026 -- Compass Datacenters is funding a 98-foot-by-60-foot permanent shade structure over the outdoor basketball court at the Northwest Valley Family YMCA, addressing the top-ranked amenity request in the City of El Mirage's 2025 Parks and Recreation Master Plan Community Survey.

City council approved the contract with vendor Shade N' Net on June 16, with construction set for completion by year-end

The structure covers a hard-surface court that Arizona summer heat renders unusable for months at a time, forcing coaches to push youth practices into evening hours and keeping preschool programs indoors. Shade N' Net has already completed six other shade structures across El Mirage's park system, and the City will maintain the new unit as part of its management of the YMCA facility.