Emerald Forges Path Into the Consumer Show Space With Lodestone Events Acquisition
January 24, 2023
Emerald has officially entered the B2C space with the recent acquisition of Lodestone Events, an event solutions company specializing in consumer lifestyle events and producers of the Overland Expo series of vehicle-based, adventure travel consumer shows.
According to Emerald officials, the acquisition supports Emerald and Lodestone’s shared mission to connect buyers and sellers, and builds on Emerald’s decades of experience in outdoor recreation via its Outdoor Retailer trade shows, the largest global B2B events serving the outdoor and winter sports industry. The deal also bolsters Emerald’s strategic expansion into the consumer lifestyle events arena while strengthening the company’s position in high-growth markets.
“Formally entering the B2C event space is paramount to Emerald’s corporate strategy of expanding into new and high-growth markets to accelerate top-line growth and unlock significant value for shareholders,” said Hervé Sedky, president and CEO of Emerald. “Adding a best-in-class consumer event series like Overland Expo demonstrates our successful implementation of this strategy and provides Emerald with talented leaders in this space, who together will enable us to continue to advance Emerald’s core services of live event connections, content and commerce.”
All Lodestone employees will join the Emerald team, bringing their consumer event expertise in-house, with Founders Lindsay Hubley and Jessica Kirchner joining Emerald’s management team and continuing to lead the Overland Expo series.
The team will also oversee Emerald’s previously announced Outdoor Adventure X show, the company’s new consumer lifestyle event for the outdoor recreation enthusiast, taking place June 17-18 at Snowbasin Resort in Huntsville, Utah, the weekend preceding the Outdoor Retailer Summer show at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on June 19-21.
“Emerald and Lodestone Events have been working together for the past year to bring Outdoor Adventure X to market, and we look forward to building on this collaboration and creating even greater value for the entire outdoor industry ecosystem, from manufacturer to retailer, to consumer,” Sedky added.
According to Emerald officials, the Lodestone Events deal also represents its third acquisition within the last year of a company led by female founders, with MJBiz and Bulletin as the first and second.
“We are passionate about gathering communities of enthusiasts to get trained, outfitted and inspired for their outdoor adventures, and are grateful to be partnering with Emerald, who are so strongly aligned with our business philosophy,” Hubley said. “We look forward to continuing to enhance the client and attendee event experience and 365-day digital content strategy with the Emerald team.”
Held annually in Arizona, Oregon, Colorado and Virginia, the four Overland Expo weekend consumer events host hundreds of session hours of overland education alongside camping, a film festival, product demos and a public trade show featuring hundreds of brands selling products directly to consumers. In 2022, the show series drew 77,000 attendees and 1,300 exhibitors, with attendees participating in 1,700 session hours of classroom-style education, roundtable discussions and hands-on instruction across 1,380 classes.
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