Global events company Terrapinn has made a new acquisition – the Future of Memory and Storage. Terrapinn acquired the event from Conference Concepts Inc.
The Future of Memory and Storage (FMS) is held annually in Santa Clara, California (Silicon Valley), and is now in its 20th year. It is primarily a conference with high-level speakers, but also features several dozen exhibitors.
FMS was originally developed as the Flash Memory Summit, before growing to encompass the storage industry at large.
Terrapinn reports that the acquisition comes at an important moment for the memory and storage industry, as it faces an “unprecedented mismatch” in supply and demand.
FMS 2026, is scheduled for 4-6 August 2026, at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The event will feature a conference, a large-scale global exhibition, and a “Technical Pro Series” focused on the infrastructure surrounding the next generation of AI, data centres and automotive applications.
Advising Conference Concepts Inc on selling the event was John McGovern from Grimes McGovern & Associates.
John stated that this deal tells us quite a lot about the state of the market. He offered a few key points:
Private equity’s share is increasing, but private buyers still make up 50%
“One thing to note is that this was a privately-owned, i.e. not private equity-backed, buyer. PE’s share is increasing, but non-PE-backed companies are still 50% of buyers of events businesses as of 2025. And this buyer, Terrapinn, has been quite active with three deals already in 2025-26,” John said.
UK organisers continue to look to the large US market for expansion.
“The FMS show has potential in Europe and Asia as well,” John added.
Healthcare, technology and energy continue to be the hottest industries to buy events in.
This latest deal further reinforces the fact.
There always needs to be an argument for suitability
“And this event fits very well within Terrapinn’s global portfolio of tech events,” John said.
The timing of purchasing this attendee audience is very good
“The timing is very good, as this attendee audience will be squarely responsible for recommending the technology to meet the demands of surging AI. Opportunities exist outside straight computing tech (namely healthcare tech and gaming tech), both of which have high memory and storage requirements,” John said.
FMS’ founders spent 20 years building the technical audience in this important and specialised market to become the leading show in the field.
It is this high-value community that Terrapinn are investing in.
It continues to be a busy, competitive M&A market. Inquiries to us from independents looking to sell are up over the last two years.
Chip Stockton, President of Conference Concepts Inc, said: “We have created a really important event for the memory and storage community and have carefully nurtured it over many years. But we now feel it is the right time to pass it on to a larger company for its next phase of growth. We are really impressed by Terrapinn’s commitment to the sector.”
“We are absolutely delighted to announce the acquisition of Future of Memory and Storage,” said Terrapinn CEO Greg Hitchen. “FMS is a significant addition to our global portfolio of technology events.”
Source: www.exhibitionworld.co.uk
Comments are closed.