A Time to Buy for JD, Questex, Prism

The week of Sept. 18 was a week to buy, buy, buy. Just ask JD Events, Questex Media Group and Prism Business Media, three industry players that scooped up events and other properties.

JD Events aims to eliminate competition for its KioskCom events with its purchase of NetWorld Alliance's tradeshow assets, including its semiannual tradeshow, Self-Service & Kiosk Show. The two firms will form a cooperative marketing partnership to endorse and support their respective properties. JD Events will continue to produce and manage tradeshows, and NetWorld Alliance will continue to create and manage print and online media properties.

Questex signed an agreement to acquire InfoTrends, a conference producer and market research provider for the digital imaging and document solutions industry. InfoTrends was a founding partner of Questex's On Demand Digital Printing & Publishing Conference and Exposition.

Prism acquired SpeedNews, a producer of four annual conferences and several publications for aviation industry executives. Prism currently owns aviation-related information data products, but not tradeshows or conferences.

The terms of the three deals were not disclosed. M&A firm Whitestone Communications represented SpeedNews in its transaction. At press time, the Questex and JD Events deals were expected to close by the end of September and beginning of October, respectively.

Joel Davis, CEO of Trumbull, Conn.-based JD Events, said that after his firm purchased the KioskCom events last September from IQPC, he sized up the fast-growing market and realized that there might not be a need for as many shows as there were.

"We knew at the time that the market was somewhat cluttered with shows, (and) we immediately began discussions with NetWorld Alliance," he said. "There were four shows for the self-service and kiosk industry. That was just a few too many for exhibitors to feel inclined to support."

The spring edition of the Self-Service & Kiosk Show last took place in February at Orlando's Orange County Convention Center with about 60 exhibitors and nearly 400 attendees. It will be folded into KioskCom Las Vegas, next scheduled April 25–27, 2007, at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. The KioskCom show has been a Tradeshow Week Fastest 50 winner the last three years.

The fall edition of the self-service show took place for the last time Sept. 28–29 at San Antonio's Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. Organizers expected it to attract about 500 attendees to 90 exhibitors within 43,000 net square feet. The show's assets will be blended into the smaller KioskCom edition, KioskCom Fall Summit, scheduled Oct. 10–11, 2007, at New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The Fall Summit took place in 2005 in Miami, but did not occur in 2006 because of the pending deal, Davis said.

Dick Good, CEO of Louisville, Ky.-based NetWorld Alliance, said the deal would produce "two bigger and better shows." NetWorld bought the self-service show in 2004 from the Minneapolis-based firm Voyagi, which started it as an annual event in 2002.

Also in accordance with the partnership, JD Events will join the Self-Service & Kiosk Assn. advisory board, and membership in its KioskCom Professional Society will transfer automatically to membership in the new Self-Service Technology User Group, part of the SSKA. The association will hold its annual meeting at the spring KioskCom each year.

There is also KioskCom Europe, which IMP Events, under a licensing agreement with JD Events, will launch Nov. 8–9 at London's Earls Court & Olympia. Davis said he expected to soon announce a further expansion of KioskCom into the Middle East and Asia.

Questex President & CEO Kerry Gumas said his firm's purchase of InfoTrends marked "a significant milestone in our drive to become a strategic business information resource for our customers."

The On Demand conference is now in its 13th year. InfoTrends' conferences include the Office Document Solutions Conference and Office Document Hardware Conference (which both occurred last month in Boston), and some in Beijing, Tokyo and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. InfoTrends also produces InfoBriefing breakfast meetings during several TSW 200 shows.

Questex has more than 400 employees in offices throughout North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe. InfoTrends employs more than 70 employees in the United States, Europe and Asia. Questex and InfoTrends (formerly CAP Ventures) are based in Newton and Weymouth (both in Massachusetts), respectively.

In July Questex purchased three beauty tradeshows from the Cayucos, Calif.-based Show Management.

Prism's acquisition of Los Angeles-based SpeedNews helped "round out" Prism's portfolio, said Shawn Etheridge, senior vice president of information data products, for the New York-headquartered firm. The conferences "are held in high regard by a very loyal customer base," he said.

The firm (formerly Primedia's business information unit) has been in "an acquisitive mode," Etheridge said, since it was purchased by U.S. Equity Partners II last year.

SpeedNews, in operation since 1979, hosted its 7th annual Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference Sept. 18–20 in Toulouse, France. The event was expected to attract more than 165 attendees representing 125 companies from 21 countries.

SpeedNews' three other conferences are scheduled to take place in California: its 11th annual Regional & Corporate Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference in November in Palm Springs; its 21st annual Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference in March in Beverly Hills; and its Aerospace & Defense Industry Suppliers Conference in May in Marina del Rey.

SpeedNews founder Gilbert Speed will continue to serve as a consultant to Prism, chairing the SpeedNews conference series and overseeing content for newsletters.

In other M&A news, VNU on Sept. 18 agreed to sell its 34.3-percent stake in Solucient, an information products firm serving the health care industry, to the Thomson Corp., which is acquiring 100 percent of Solucient. Terms of the deal, expected to close later this year, were not disclosed.

Also on Sept. 18, Harte-Hanks, a direct and targeted marketing firm, agreed to acquire Aberdeen Group, a technology market research provider that organizes a few annual summits. Jordan Edmiston Group Inc. represented Aberdeen in the deal.

Additionally, the exhibit design firms Avalon Exhibits and Art Guild announced Sept. 21 that they will merge as of Jan. 1, 2007. Avalon is headquartered in New Castle, Del. Art Guild is headquartered in Thorofare, N.J., and has four other locations, including Las Vegas.