As we enter 2011, Mayfield Media’s Steve Monnington takes a look at the big international mergers and acquisitions activity.
We have just returned from Brazil where we had the opportunity to make a presentation about M&A trends to a number of the Brazilian exhibition organisers during the meeting of the association UBRAFE.
It’s public knowledge that there has been business development activity in the recent past with UBM, Informa and Clarion busy launching or acquiring shows. Reed of course has been active in Brazil for many years having partnered with the largest organiser Alcantara Machado.
It is clear Brazil has the necessary attributes for international organisers by way of venues, private organisers and good existing events. In addition, unlike other emerging markets, there is no conflict of interest caused by venue operators acting also as exhibition organisers. The mindset of exhibition organisers is clearly focused towards M&A and Brazil’s economy is riding high, so we should see a lot of activity over the coming year.
Back to a more traditional market, and Reed Exhibitions has acquired Australian player Life Instyle. The company organises two annual events covering high-end homewares and lifestyle products together with top-end child and baby boutiques through its brand Kids Instyle. The acquisition is small and strategic, complementing Reed’s giftware portfolio. Reed has been quiet on the acquisition front, leaving all the headlines to other major organisers. Maybe this will whet the appetite for more.
Brand Events signalled a greater focus in its strategy of international brand replication by selling Who Do You Think You Are Live to the BBC. Unlike brands such as Top Gear Live and Taste, Who Do You Think and La Dolce Vita, sold earlier this year to Single Market Events, have no real replication potential.
ITE Group picked up all shares in International Exhibition Company CJSC (Zao MVK) in Moscow, with 20 exhibitions in the furniture, packaging, pumps and measurement industries.
Finally, a positive move in the technology arena. German magazine and web media company, Hubert Burda Media, has acquired Amiando through its Xing subsidiary (which Burda also acquired last year). Amiando provides event registration and ticketing services for exhibitions and events, including virtual events, and provides an integrated online service which also encompasses website development, participant list management and social media.
Xing, a social network for business professionals, has identified this as an area of added value for its 10 million members who it says organise around 100,000 events via the Xing platform. This is a logical development which capitalises on the growth in events generated by online business communities and promoted via social media.
The difficulty of keeping up with the fast pace of technology development and monetising tech offerings was highlighted by Fish Software’s decision to exit from the exhibition market with its real-time RFID visitor tracking technology. This is a brand new concept for the exhibition sector and with companies like Cisco developing and marketing its own RFID networks, we will hopefully still see this idea introduced to the sector. It hits at the heart of the challenges for face-to-face events: how an exhibitor effectively targets a crowded exhibition floor.
