Simon Foster is the 20-year British veteran of trade shows across the world whose Arc company has formed “an exclusive partnership to build the next generation events business” with EagleTree Capital, of New York. It is now known to be involved in up to six ‘active’ discussions, any or all of which might result in acquisitions within the next six months.
Foster left his post as CEO of Comexposium in 2019 but had spent more then 10 years with UBM, latterly as CEO of EMEA. He is targeting acquisitions in Northern Europe and North America, and says: “We want to build the future of networking…we want to take the next step in connecting and supporting communities and building business networks.” That’s code for events that may embrace personalisation, data, ‘content’, and even subscriptions. He’s also keen to build a ‘networked’ group with a light touch that encourages entrepreneurs to ‘join’.
It is believed that one role model Foster has in mind is Les Assises, the Comexposium cyber security event which attracts some 4,500 attendees and 500 suppliers to hotels in Monaco. The event – believed to have revenue of some €10-12m – comprises planned One2One meetings and networking events. It resumes in October this year.
It is believed that the first acquisitions of the Foster-EagleTree partnership may include events sold by one of the major exhibitions companies.
EagleTree owns NorthStar Travel Group and, formerly, Penton which it sold to Informa in 2016. Operating partner Robert Gray was a former UBM colleague of Foster. EagleTree shares with other private equity firms a strong belief in the bounceback of live events, but also a sense of realism about how exhibitions will need quickly to apply the lessons of the ‘digital interlude’ imposed by the pandemic.
That in itself may test the patience of exhibition investors. It is already prompting a re-focus by the major players on their biggest and best trade shows, giving Simon Foster the opportunity to acquire clusters of events which have become lower priority. His team comprises five experienced exhibition executives who are being advised by Canson Capital Partners which helped Providence to sell Clarion Events to Blackstone for £600m in 2017. They’re getting busy.
