Emap Connect, the former exhibitions arm of an 80-year-old UK-based publisher, today trades as i2i Events. In 2007 its parent, Emap was bought by the UK’s Guardian Media Group [GMG] and Apax for £1.2bn [US$1.9bn]. They sold off the consumer elements of the business, all the magazines and its radio stations. This left it with its B2B businesses, which comprised an exhibitions business, a small conference business, and festival business Cannes Lions. It also had a publishing arm called Emap, and a data company and trend analysis business called WGSN.
Then the economic crisis hit in 2008 and business took a turn for the worse. Apax and GMG wrote down the value of their investment, and Emap faced action resulting from a possible breach of its lending covenants until both investors injected tens of millions in fresh funding. Emap’s other creditors agreed to waive the covenant breach in return for it accepting expensive and potentially restrictive new lending terms.
Then in 2011 came the turnaround. CEO David Gilbertson stepped down after three years as chief executive of Emap, giving the ongoing involvement of private equity partners brought about by the recession as a key reason for his exit. Apax and GMG appointed a new CEO for the company, now trading as Top Right Group. This man, Duncan Painter, in turn brought in former ITE founder Mark Shashoua, to manage events arm Emap Connect under its new moniker i2i Events.
Shashoua’s role was to globalise the business, which was up to this point limited to being one of the UK’s largest players, running events such as the 100,000sqm Spring Fair, the 50,000sqm Autumn Fair, and education technology event BETT, which unlike the previous two, was a major international player as well. He planned to shake off the reputation Emap had developed as a publisher, with a publisher’s mindset, running exhibitions.
“That is what the company was,” explains Shashoua. “But Duncan’s vision was that every company should have its own identity and be best-in-class in their respective industry sectors. I was brought in to build this into a leading global events company.”
Key to this rebirth is i2i Events’ mission is to take events abroad through geocloning and adaptation. Leading the charge are three shows with a genuine global profile: BETT, the World Retail Congress, and waste management show RWM, being led into two markets to start with, China and Latin America. “Our internationalisation is based on geocloning existing shows into other markets, and buying leading shows that have the capability to be geocloned,” says Shashoua.
But geography aside, what was i2i Events’ model for expansion? “Building up in sectors that are fast growing, that have strong international clients. BETT’s core clients are massive multinationals, for example,” says Shashoua. “BETT is a tech show but the core clients are Microsoft, Intel, Samsung, Google, all of those clients that we’re focusing on. And when we go to Brazil – they are the companies that have already signed on. They want us to take them to different markets. Ultimately we’re listening to where these multinationals want to go, and where they feel they don’t have an appropriate platform.
“If you look at World Retail Congress, for retail CEOs around the world, the exhibition side of that event is all about technology. It’s Microsoft, it’s MasterCard, it’s Samsung. So what we’re doing is having relationships with these multinationals to not only help them get into different markets, but also different parts of the industry sectors. Microsoft features in a number of our shows, not just geocloning but industry sectors.”
Finding a platform for multinationals
According to Shashoua, because Microsoft feels there wasn’t an appropriate event that gives them the right platform in which to accelerate their presence in Latin America, they are relying on i2i Events to give them that platform in Latin America.
i2i Events bought coil winding show CWIEME in September 2012. “The biggest show is in Berlin and already we’ve cloned it to Chicago and India this year, we’ve launched Coil Winding China in May of next year, and two more markets next year for the same show,” he says. Importantly, the company bought CWIEME, it didn’t forge a joint venture. because while Shashoua claims to be a firm believer in working closely with local authorities, he favours establishing and growing his own operations rather than setting up shared entities with local companies. “I think joint-ventures work to a degree, but they only work if both parties are completely aligned,” he claims. We always worked extremely closely with local authorities and governments.
“It could well be that when we do a purchase as we did in Brazil [with RWM], that we will work with the owners for a number of years, but we’ve already set up our own local operations in Brazil, and in China,” he says.
RWM Brazil is a case of geo-adapting, he points out. While it may be the biggest show in Europe for waste management, it’s not that well-known in markets like Latin America. “So we set up our own operation, forgerd a local partnership with the waste association department in Brazil, where they are aligned with the show, but we adapted it for the local market and own it 100 per cent.
“We will continue to look at sectors that have strong multinational clients that then want to use us to get into new markets,” he says. “That’s why we did Coil Winding – you’ve got Tata Steel, you’ve got ABB, Siemens, very strong companies in a very niche sector, but they want to have a local event for that industry sector.
Painter’s vision on taking over at was very much to have four independent businesses, with their own vision, direction and investment plans, and cultures. Historically Emap was trying to run it all as one, with varying degrees of success. But when i2i Events was given an independent mission, it gave it the freedom to act.
This time last year, i2i Events had 100 per cent of its shows in the UK. At time of writing the company has 30 per cent of its shows outside of the UK, but the balance will be very close to 50/50 by the end of the year.
i2i has completely transformed what was Emap Connect, a strong local business, and now hopes to make its name as a strong global business.
This was first published in issue 4/2013 of EW. Any comments? Email exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
