As the return of face-to-face trade shows gains momentum, event-related organizations across the U.S. and abroad are forming new partnerships, scooping up compatible businesses and announcing office expansions as they move steadily toward a busier and brighter post-pandemic future. Take a look!

Heritage Exposition Services 

Heritage Exposition Services, a privately owned and operated general service contractor specializing in trade show, convention and event experiences, recently expanded into a new operations facility in Phoenix. Five times larger than its original facility, the new space will enable the Heritage team to meet greater demand while further supporting growth in its western region.

The new facility provides additional capacity for all aspects of production, including bulk carpet operations, Matrix/MIS system build staging, graphics processing and national support team members. 

Since the industry’s reopening, the company has experienced unprecedented triple digit growth across all of its offices nationwide, including St. Louis, Las Vegas, Nashville and Washington, D.C., with its Phoenix office continuing to be a consistent and key driver of that growth. Thus, the company has consistently added to its regional and national teams to support operations since entering the Phoenix market in December 2020, including investments in new technologies, the latest custom design builds, local print capabilities and infrastructure, according to Heritage officials. 

“Our seasoned industry experts led by General Manager Steve Rowe, combined with Heritage’s long-standing, quickly scalable operating procedures and our team’s total focus on its customers has greatly contributed to our continued success in the market and nationwide,” said Ryan Yemm, president of Heritage Exposition Services. 

Orbus  

Orbus Exhibit & Display Group, North America’s largest producer and manufacturer of visual communications solutions for trade shows and events, retail environments and corporate interiors, recently acquired SEG Systems and Services. 

Based in Charlotte, N.C., SEG Systems specializes in the engineering, design and manufacture of lightboxes, merchandising and display systems and creative solutions, while Portland, Ore.-based SEG Services is a full-service retail marketing agency offering design, production and execution services. 

“Orbus is excited to explore the outstanding custom capabilities of SEG and its remarkable team,” said Gary Keefer, CEO of Orbus. “They have demonstrated superior speed, precision and creativity in their solutions. Further, SEG’s assortment of frames and light boxes complement and supplement Orbus’ existing offering.”

SEG President Reid Johnson will continue to lead the SEG team and join the Orbus executive team.

“Being a part of the Orbus Group significantly expands our resources and capabilities across North America,” Johnson said. “Access to an expansive range of visual communications solutions, supported by an exceptional team committed to service, promises a limitless future for what we can do together.” 

EventsPass 

Event marketing and management platform EventsPass, based in Tacoma, Wash., and Melbourne, Australia, formed a new major customer partnership with Informa Markets’ South Florida Ventures to provide digital ticketing, credentialing and its LeadGen lead capture app at several of Informa’s boating and beauty consumer events in the South Florida region. 

Informa awarded EventsPass event show contracts for the Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show, the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, the Suncoast Boat Show, the Palm Beach International Boat Show and the St. Petersburg Power & Sailboat Show, as well as the Premiere beauty shows in Orlando, Birmingham, Ala., and Columbus, Ohio. 

“The technology product fit provided by EventsPass empowers us to elevate the service and experience we provide to our exhibitors and attendees, while at the same time providing data insights we have not historically had access to,” explained Randy Field, vice president of Marketing for Informa. “This new approach to ticketing will allow us to offer our exhibitors the ability to capture leads in ways never before seen in the beauty and boating event industry.” 

ExpoPlatform 

International event technology company ExpoPlatform has partnered with Fairsgate Founder and CEO Simone Castelli to expand its presence in the Italian exhibition industry. 

Boasting many years of experience in developing exhibitions in Italy, including Italian Exhibition Group and others, Castelli’s partnership comes at a time of high growth for the leading Smart Event and 365 Community platform, which has more than doubled its workforce over the last 12 months. 

“I’m delighted to welcome someone with Simone’s experience to our team,” said Luke Bilton, chief growth officer at ExpoPlatform, which supports leading trade show organizers including Informa, Reed Exhibitions, Fiera Milano, Clarion and MCI, among others.

He continued “We already work closely with the organizers such as Fiere Bologna to deliver exceptional events such as Cosmoprof. This partnership will help us to unlock the huge potential of the Italian market for digital transformation.”  

Castelli and Bilton recently introduced the new partnership to senior exhibition leaders at GRS ExpoNetwork Forum, which was held July 5 in Milan.  

“I am pleased to work with ExpoPlatform because partnering with the leader in the digital marketplace will expand the solutions for the Italian exhibition organizers. Their unique set of modules, from the unique Lead Intelligence dashboards to Hosted Buying, will give more value to the Italian market.”  

Have a new business deal to share? Please send announcements to lpsavas@tsnn.com.

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