New Business Deals: Trifecta and RX Make Acquisitions at Trade Shows and Beyond

Three event organizations in the U.S. and overseas recently made strategic trade show acquisitions and formed new partnerships to enhance their offerings and expand their presence in key business segments. Take a look.

Trifecta Collective acquires TRANSACT

Trifecta Collectivea marketplace platform owned and backed by leading US private equity firm GreyLion, has acquired TRANSACT from the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), a global industry organization dedicated to defending the rights and interests of the payments industry.

As an annual event for the payment processing industry, TRANSACT 2024 took place on April 17-19 in Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas and attracted more than 250 exhibitors and 3,000 attendees. The 2025 show will be held April 2-4, 2025 at Mandalay Bay.

“This partnership with Trifecta and GreyLion paves the way to elevate TRANSACT to an unprecedented level of quality and value,” said Jodie Kelley, CEO of ETA. “We are excited to work together and continue to expand the show for many years to come as we strive to better serve the payments and fintech industry and continue to position TRANSACT as a leading event in the marketplace.”

Nick Curci of Corporate Solutions in Westport, Conn., served as exclusive counsel to ETA in structuring and negotiating the transaction. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The acquisition marks Trifecta’s third trade show transaction in the past two years that Corporate Solutions has helped close, adding the North American Trailer Dealer Association, NATDA Trailer Show and International Mass Timber Conference to the company’s growing portfolio of events.

“This is another great acquisition for Trifecta Collective as the TRANSACT brand adds strength, scale and diversification to their existing portfolio of trade shows across multiple sectors,” said Curci. “I am confident that Trifecta Collective and ETA together will enable the TRANSACT brand to grow to new heights, given their extensive experience, existing management team and the support of their financial partners.”

The company was founded by GreyLion and exhibition industry veterans Rick McConnell and Jennifer Hoff, the latter Taffy Event StrategiesTrifecta Collective has been expanding its portfolio of fairs and events since 2021.

“I am pleased to welcome TRANSACT to the Trifecta portfolio,” said McConnell. “This dynamic and impactful show is a testament to ETA’s strategic efforts to build a strong, respected brand in the fintech industry. We look forward to leveraging our partnership with ETA and our experience in the trade show industry to further enhance TRANSACT’s success.”

RX buys sustainable energy conferences

Global Events and Exhibitions Company Reception acquired Sustainable Energy Conferences Ltd (SEC), the owner and organizer World Hydrogen Summit and Exhibition (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Hydrogen Americas Summit & Expo (Washington), Asia Pacific Hydrogen Summit & Exhibition (Brisbane, Australia) and Sustainable Energy Council mark.

The events, focused on the rapidly growing hydrogen sector, cover the entire value chain, including production, transmission, distribution and storage, as well as key end-user sectors such as heavy industry and transport.

The trio of events joins and complements RX’s growing portfolio of over 400 events in over 22 countries across 43 sectors, including clean energy. These include the All-Energy shows in the UK and Australia, the World Future Energy Summit in the UAE and Smart Energy Week in Japan.

“This acquisition is part of our expansion strategy in the emerging low-carbon sector,” said Hugh Jones, CEO of RX Global. “Hydrogen is expected to be a large, fast-growing and international sector that will be key to the future of decarbonizing energy, industrial processes and transportation. SEC’s portfolio is highly valued and RX is well-positioned to leverage its impact, and these developments complement and strengthen RX’s broader offering in the energy sector. I look forward to working with the team.”

SEC’s 21-strong team of permanent employees will join RX. Sustainable Energy Conferences Ltd. founder Tim Clark expressed his enthusiasm about joining RX.

“The global hydrogen market continues to grow and revolutionize the energy world,” said Clark. “Joining RX will allow us to build on these developments by leveraging their technology platforms, global network and operational expertise. I look forward to our teams sharing their expertise and commitment to advancing our brands and products.”

Iventis enters strategic partnership with MIH Major Events

London, UK Iventisevent collaboration and venue planning solutions provider, enters strategic partnership with event consulting firm Important MIH events aimed at streamlining the event planning and execution process and changing the way we imagine and execute large events.

The partnership, which is underpinned by a shared commitment to serving and facilitating collaboration between diverse audiences, including organising committees, host cities, commercial event operators and local authorities, will enable both entities to work together to support the ambitions of cities and event organisations throughout the project lifecycle to ensure smooth tendering, planning and execution of events, according to Iventis.

“We are excited to join forces with MIH Major Events,” said Joe Cusdin, CEO and Founder of Iventis. “Our combined experience and shared vision of facilitating collaboration among event stakeholders will undoubtedly streamline the planning and execution of major events. Integrating our innovative planning tools with MIH’s consulting services will provide a best-in-class solution for host cities and organizers.”

Both organisations have a proven track record in the major and mega-events sector, having worked on events including the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022, the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool and the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. They recently supported the host city and local organising committee to deliver the SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit 2024, where they were originally conceived as a partnership.

“The partnership with Iventis allows us to enhance our work with host cities and major events with cutting-edge visual planning technology,” explained Berna Ucel, co-founder of MIH, who has over two decades of combined experience in the major and mega-events industry. “This partnership benefits multiple areas of operational planning. We look forward to developing some of the capabilities in urban spaces so that we can start looking at the broader reach of events earlier in the planning stages and enable improved integrated planning.”

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