Peterson Is Penton's New Hope for Shows

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 3/27/2006

Penton Media division New Hope Natural Media has tapped industry entrepreneur Alan Peterson to lead the company's face-to-face events as senior vice president of tradeshows.

He will replace Brian Henderson and will report to Scott Owen, New Hope's executive vice president.

Following nine years as a show manager at Miller Freeman, Peterson founded the Davis Peterson Collaborative with former Miller Freeman colleague Todd Davis in 2001. In 2003, Hanley Wood bought the company, which included the Luxury Kitchen and Bath Collection and Sunbelt Builders Show.

Davis joined Hanley Wood, while Peterson founded the Collaborative Service Group, producing shows for the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management and Washington Mutual.

Peterson said the corporate structure of Penton won't cramp his style. "Actually, that's one of the reasons I was attracted to this. While it's within Penton, (New Hope) is a small, entrepreneurial company. And it's in a market that's entrepreneurial."

He said he hopes to expand New Hope's role in the natural products market, which it serves with four publications and two tradeshows. The largest is Natural Products Expo West, a Tradeshow Week 200-ranked show that took place last week in Anaheim.

"There are some very good tradeshow folks and some very good market people at New Hope. My goal is to fuse the market knowledge with the tradeshow knowledge and get us in a position where we can take on new events and opportunities," said Peterson.

He noted that the shows scheduled for this year were on track to be the company's largest ever.