NEW YORK — Emerald Holding, Inc. announced the acquisition of Lodestone Eventsthe producer of the Overland Expo series. This acquisition represents Emerald’s expansion into the B2C events sector and its positioning in high-growth markets.
“The Lodestone team’s expertise in delivering first-class consumer events and their close relationship with outdoor enthusiasts will be crucial as we officially launch into the B2C events space with Outdoor Adventure X “This first consumer lifestyle event for Emerald addresses the growing demand for outdoor experiences and creates opportunities for consumers to directly engage with their favorite products and brands while fostering discovery of what’s new in the outdoor space,” said Hervé Sedky, Emerald’s President and CEO.
Lodestone Events’ flagship event, Overland Expo, is a series of four annual trade shows held in Arizona, Oregon, Colorado and Virginia. The Overland Expo series will be part of Emerald’s action sports and outdoor recreation portfolio. In 2022, 77,000 consumers and 1,300 exhibitors attended the Overland Expo series, which also featured educational components with more than 1,000 classes offered.
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“The primary goal of Emerald’s Action Sports and Outdoor Recreation portfolio is to continue to grow and evolve the portfolios, which include well-established and successful brands including Outdoor Retailer, Surf Expo and Shop Eat Surf,” said Jess Blue, Executive Vice President of Emerald. “We aim to achieve these goals through organic growth, acquisitions and collaboration with like-minded brands that complement our existing portfolios and share our values, connection and love for the industries we serve. The dynamic of our relationship has become stronger in that moving from a partnership to a separate team under the same company makes all of our collective processes, especially the creative process, smoother and easier to execute.”
Lodestone Events is one of many acquisitions and launches in the past year, with Emerald announcing the acquisition of MJBiz in January 2022 and Advertising Week Global Events Platform in June 2022, Bulletin Inc. in July 2022 and the launch of Las Vegas Food & Beverage Industry Week in February 2022, Mentera in June 2022 and reMind in October 2022.
Lodestone Events was founded as a small, female-led family business, making this partnership particularly meaningful. Lodestone Events represents the third acquisition of a female-led business in the past year, with MJBiz and Bulletin being the first and second.
“Our overarching goal is to serve the entire outdoor recreation and action sports ecosystem, from manufacturer to retailer to consumer, as this is critical to the success of all of our customers and the industry as a whole,” Blue said.
Outdoor Adventure X will take place June 17-18, 2023 in Huntsville, Utah.
Reach Hervé Sedky at herve.sedky@emeraldx.com