Feature
A
nyone who follows Ed Tranter on social
media might be unsurprised to learn
that his first major launch as an independent
organiser is The Rugby Show, taking place at
Ricoh Arena.
“I’ve been a passionate rugby fan for some
time, which is fairly well documented,” he
agrees.
EN is meeting with Tranter at International
Confex to learn more about life after three
years as managing director of MA Exhibitions,
where he grew Mark Allen Group’s exhibition
business from a handful of events to a thriving
international portfolio of trade shows.
Tranter’s reason for leaving MA Exhibitions
was simple: family.
“I decided I was going to leave MA
Exhibitions largely 6based on my children,” he
tells EN. “Being in Dubai or Miami sounds very
glamourous and is a lot of fun but I’m fond of
my children and actually want to see them.
“With all the growth at MA Exhibitions that
clearly wasn’t going to happen. You need to
draw a line and so I did. Once I decided to do
that, I had to think about what I was going to
do.”
After leaving MA Exhibitions, Tranter
started consulting, but was eager to get back to
creating and running events.
“At my core I’m an organiser,” he says. “I
launch and run events, that’s what I do and
that’s what I love to do. I love the energy that
30 — April
A new
test
Ed Tranter, founder of
73 Media, on tackling
a consumer show
with the launch of The
Rugby Show
Ed Tranter
the industry has, I love the creativity, I love
the fact that we can innovate and take things
that don’t exist and turn them into a living,
breathing organism.”
He had two main reservations when it came
to starting work on The Rugby Show: no other
shows existed to serve that market and his own
passion for the subject matter.
“The first thing you think is ‘there must be
a reason why no one’s done it’,” he explains.
“Then you remember that actually that’s what
everyone thought about everything you’ve ever
launched, and yet you launch it and it works.
“The second is, if you really love something,
you have to think, ‘am I doing this because I
love it or is there a business here?’. You have
to have a transactional value to your audience
coming in; if you fill a hall with exhibitors
they expect to see something, not just people
walking around in rugby shirts who aren’t
going to buy anything.”
The answer was to approach the launch in
much the same way that he would approach a
trade event.
“Everything starts with research,” Tranter
explains. “The research has been slightly
painstaking and very involved.
“I look back and when I played club rugby
we would start drinking as soon as the game
finished. That was the culture. For this new
generation it’s about fitness and body care and
mindfulness, all the stuff that never crossed