Following the July 1 acquisition of event registration, on-site and lead services provider Congress Data Services (CDS) of the Global Events Company Free man, Maritz is now poised to become the dominant player in registration, hosting, lead retrieval, onsite support and data services for some of America’s largest trade shows and events.
Maritz, a meetings and events management company, and Freeman are both privately held and terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Although Maritz officials would not disclose its client portfolio at press time, CDS boasts a who’s who of major trade shows on its client list.
In April, CDS announced that it had has formed a partnership with Informa Markets (TSNN is owned by Information) to become the show organizer’s strategic partner for registration and lead management for its North American event portfolio, which features a roster of market-leading B2B events. These include: The world of concrete; SupplySide Network East; The International Surface Event (TISE); the Water and Wastewater Equipment, Treatment and Transport (WWETT) show; IME West; DesignCon; and New Hope Network’s Natural Products Expo West, to name a few.
Maritz President and CEO David Peckinpaugh expressed excitement about the acquisition of CDS, which not only adds a significant number of clients and events to its existing portfolio, but also brings together two companies with long histories in the events industry.
“By adding this new portfolio of CDS customers, Maritz significantly increases its market share and positions us well for the future,” Peckinpaugh said. “This acquisition exemplifies our commitment to supporting association events and trade shows in an era of evolving attendee expectations and behaviors.”
Peckinpaugh added that Maritz will now integrate more than 200 CDS employees, a process that could take up to 36 months, bringing its workforce to about 2,700 employees across all of its divisions.
“It’s not just about events: we’re a big company, we have automotive solutions and engagement solutions, and business events solutions, but business events is the largest of the three market-facing parts of our business,” he said.
Maritz has strengthened its position in the events industry over the past 15 years, starting with its acquisition of meeting and event services company Experient in 2012.
With the addition of CDS, Maritz will benefit from expanded talent and services to accelerate innovation and bring new products to market. In the meantime, Maritz customers will not see any immediate changes as the company begins the integration process, according to Maritz officials.
“The industry will continue to benefit from the exceptional experience it has come to expect from both organizations,” said Darren Phalen, President of CDS. “We are excited to share more about how our combined expertise will benefit trade show associations and organizers. With so much talent under one umbrella, we will be at the forefront of industry innovation to help solve some of the biggest challenges facing the events industry.”
Freeman acquired CDS in the fall of 2019in an effort to expand Freeman’s recording data collection capabilities. So why part ways with CDS and why now? Freeman officials did not respond to requests for comment as of press time, but in a statement, Paul Fletcher, Freeman’s chief operating officer, Audio Visual & Event Technology, said he is confident that Maritz is the right place for CDS and its talented team.
“Freeman remains focused on delivering unforgettable experiences to ensure we are best positioned to deliver meaningful and impactful events for organizers, exhibitors and attendees,” he said.
TSNN had the opportunity to sit down with Peckinpaugh to learn more about the acquisition, what it means for Maritz customers and the trade show industry in general.
What motivated Maritz to acquire CDS from Freeman and how long has this deal been in the works?
The discussions started after the beginning of the year, but they really picked up steam in February, March or April, when Freeman initiated the sale process. We have a long-standing relationship with Freeman for decades (and) we are great partners who have worked very closely together. So Freeman initiated the timing and the sale process. But as soon as we were informed, we jumped right in and did everything we could to show our interest (in buying CDS) because it was such a logical and right fit for us and for them.
(CDS) went from a family business in Freeman to a family business in Maritz, and that has a really good continuity. I think Freeman saw the cultural fit and that we were a great anchor for CDS’s customers and their employees, so it was one of those great win-win-win scenarios that we’re all excited about.
How does the addition of CDS align with Maritz’s overall strategic objectives?
Maritz’s events business started in 1958, so we’ve been around for 66 years. We acquired Experient in 2012, and before that (Mariz) was almost 100% an enterprise and had one nonprofit client. I had spent eight years at Experient, so when I joined Maritz, it was a company I knew, and we were really excited about the addition of the nonprofit space, trade shows, and live events, and (since then) we’ve really done a great job of growing that business organically. But then a unique opportunity like CDS comes along, and you have to take advantage of it. We did, and we’re really excited about it.
What is the strategy of CDS senior management and staff?
Everyone is on board. They have a full portfolio of clients and events, and their teams are stretched thin, and ours are full. It’s not like we have all this excess capacity, so everyone is on board, management is on board, and it’s business as usual. As we said to the teams last week, the way you operated two weeks ago and last week is the way you’ll operate next week and going forward. We have an integration plan, but it’s going to take time. We’re very patient as an acquirer and we probably have a three-year window that’s realistic while we work through all the details. Some of the back-office stuff will happen quite quickly, but anything that affects a client is absolutely handled with kid gloves and done in collaboration with our clients so that we don’t do anything that disrupts the great relationships and service that they already have.
How do you think this acquisition will enhance Maritz’s service offering and innovation capabilities for its association and trade show clients?
If you look at two industry leaders and you have the opportunity to bring them together, the first thing that excites me is the talent – (CDS has) great talent throughout the organization. So this infusion of new talent, new perspectives, new energy is going to be tremendous for Maritz. When we look at the benefits of both and how we combine them – it’s the old 1+1 is greater than 3, you hope. That’s the idea here, that we can bring the best of both, and it’s only going to enhance the offerings that we have for our customers, enhance the service, the technology of the solutions, the list goes on. And we’ll drive innovation, because we now have a significant portfolio of customers, and our access to data and trends within that portfolio is unmatched, so we’re excited about what that means.
CDS, and with Freeman, has always published a trends report, and we do the same thing, we just did our Registration Analysis Report about 6 to 8 weeks ago, so think about that opportunity now. And we’re now adding hosting capabilities to CDS, which they didn’t have before, so you have a robust full-service solution for the association and trade show market in addition to the event management side that we’ve had forever. It’s pretty exciting and I think our customers are going to be very excited about it.
Is there anything else we should know about this deal?
Everyone is really excited about the acquisitions and what it means and what the impact is, but really it has no impact on our Maritz customers, other than… it shows an additional investment in this area, a commitment to associations and trade shows. For CDS customers, it’s business as usual and everybody just has to let the process run its course, and that’s what will happen.
Our customers are our number one priority and our people are our number one priority. We don’t want to do anything that would interfere or disrupt those relationships, and I think that’s the number one message, is that this is a really powerful combination of two industry leaders coming together to continue to lead the industry with product solutions, innovation, data, data insights, all of these benefits that people expect from us.
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