Thirty-year event veteran Danny Phillips has joined media M&A firm Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips as managing director for events. 

The first quarter of 2019 is off to a roaring start, with event companies and suppliers far and wide renewing partnerships and signing new business contracts.

The UFI Global Exhibition Barometer, issued semi-annually by UFI, the Global Association for the Exhibition Industry, is an important gauge of global trade show health. The latest report, which came out Feb. 5, revealed a positive look at 2019.

Are you feeling uncertain about how to get more millennials to your event?

AEG Facilities, the venue management subsidiary of AEG, and SMG, an Onex portfolio company and venue management company, have signed a definitive agreement to merge.

This combination will create a new, standalone global facility management and venue services company that will operate as ASM Global (“ASM”).

Onex and AEG’s subsidiary will each own 50 percent of the company following the completion of the transaction.

The biannual MAGIC fashion trade show is reinventing itself by offering a new one-stop shopping experience at a single venue, following feedback from MAGIC buyers. 

Diversified Communications’ President and CEO Theodore Wirth promoted Mary Larkin to President of Diversified Communications’ U.S. operating division.

“In 2014, we took the unusual step and established a three-person EVP team. Bill Springer, Mike Lodato and Mary Larkin were able to grow the business, but three-person leadership teams are challenging at best and we felt it was the right time to appoint one leader,” Wirth said.

Is the next recession coming? Joe Popolo, CEO of Freeman, doesn’t seem to think so. In the past twelve months, the Dallas-based company completed several acquisitions and sales to stay nimble in the changing marketplace and is gaining ground around the world.

TSNN sat down with Popolo at EFI Connect, a conference for digital imaging and printing that took place last month in Las Vegas, where he shared his thoughts on growing a family company to a $3 billion business, the role of new technologies and overall market trends.

Full-service sourcing, housing and event management company Connections Housing has acquired Par Avion, a full-service convention housing and travel company based in Lawndale, Calif.  

Both Connections Housing and Par Avion are women-owned business and are respected leaders in housing and travel services with mutual emphasis on executing superior and seamless events.   

It’s late; you’ve skipped dinner, again; and the hotel mini bar beckons. What will it be: overpriced potato chips, M&Ms, or maybe both? With a little advance planning, you could have prevented the strike of nighttime hunger — and perhaps a multitude of health issues down the road.