By John McGovern, CEO/Owner Grimes McGovern and Associates
As the owner and CEO of events M&A firm Grimes, McGovern & Associates, I’m thrilled to be heading to London for the Indy Expo & Awards 2025 – a flagship event for the UK independent exhibition sector.
This year, I’m moderating three sessions in the C-Suite track. They will cover various key aspects of building, growing and selling event businesses.
Session one – Seeing deals through the buyer’s eyes
The Exit Strategies session is an unusual one. One of the speakers, Mike Seaman, is both a seller and a buyer – and Gabriella has an interesting perspective as well. Having worked with a lot of buyers over the years, she understands the selling landscape better than most. She’s done due diligence-related work and knows which buyers are where, not only in the UK, but around the world.
Delegates should expect to learn about the buyer perspective from those involved in the deal flow.
Session two – M&A trends across the globe
The second session covers the latest trends in M&A for 2025. The US has been active, Europe not so much. What sectors are trending? Where do we see this activity going for the rest of 2025 and 2026? We plan to share some current statistics and trends affecting the UK exhibition and event market (in a good way).
Greg Hitchen comes from a company with a unique structure. It’s a privately owned firm actively buying events across the world. I can’t wait to hear his perspective on the UK market and where it’s headed.
Session three – Why the funding gap by VCs and private equity in exhibitions?
Last but certainly not least, I’m excited to chat with Terry O’Dwyer. We plan to demystify why, given the low barriers to entry in the exhibition market, there hasn’t been much early-stage investment by different types of Private Equity and Venture Capital into the exhibition space. Having recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, EVG announced a couple of deals recently and we hear more are in the works.
Learning more about what opportunities they are looking for with their unique financing (and angel investment) model is a must for all entrepreneurs in the industry, for both organisers and suppliers.
Grimes, McGovern & Associates is a leading lower middle-market Mergers & Acquisitions firm advising media, events, and information services businesses globally. See our transactions here.
Source: www.exhibitionworld.co.uk
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