Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for Aram | Delivered February 10, 2020

Meeting and Conference Market

Goals

The goals of this research are to find between five and seven examples of private capital investments in the meeting and conference industry over the past two years and to provide additional insights about consolidation/fragmentation within said industry, with a specific focus on U.S. examples and insights. This research will be used to determine whether a roll-up strategy in the conference and meeting market is worthwhile. 

Early Findings

Investments Within The Past Two YearsWe were able to find three examples of private investments within the past two years.
On February 21, 2019, it was announced that "PRA, a leading business event management company in the United States, . . . acquired Koncept Events of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Through eight strategic add-on acquisitions completed under CI Capital's ownership, PRA has established an end-to-end event management company and enhanced its service offering in key destinations . . . ."
In June 2018, it was reported that "PSAV, a global leader in event experiences, entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by private equity and real estate funds affiliated with Blackstone from affiliates of Goldman Sachs and Olympus Partners."
One of private equity firm HGGC's portfolio companies is Aventi, which is a "leading event management software company." In October 2018, Aventi acquired ITN International, which is an events company that, each year, services "125 events, 10,000 exhibitors and 1.5 million attendees."
Additionally, we found this article specifically about M&A within the B2B meetings/conference/events industry, which directly pertains to this subject.
Investments in 2017 & 2016During our research, we found two private capital investments in the meetings and conference industry outside of the past-two-year range we focused on. We wanted to include these investments because of their applicability to this subject, even though they are from over two years ago.
In May 2017, it was reported that etouches, a "[g]lobal provider of cloud event management software . . . has been acquired by HGGC, a middle market private equity firm." 
"Vista Equity Partners Fund VI completed a take-private of Cvent in November 2016" and Cvent is still a portfolio company of the firm. Cvent is an "[e]nterprise event management platform." Vista bought Cvent for $1.65 billion.