International
A united
front
Clarion’s Duncan Reid and
Tom Fisher on the integration
of PennWell and creating the
Clarion Energy brand
14 — March
I
n early 2018, Clarion Events – newly
acquired by private equity firm Blackstone
– bought US-based organiser and media
company PennWell for around $300m.
The ambitious purchase added a wide range
of events to Clarion’s roster, many of which
were in the energy and power industry. In
addition, as with any acquisition, a process of
integration and standardisation began across
the organisation.
“It was significantly larger than any
acquisition we’d made before,” Duncan Reid,
managing director – energy at Clarion, tells
EN. “On the energy side, how it integrated
with our existing businesses has sat with me.
“One of the first things I did when I took
over was start to look at some of the brands
that we have. The first part of the strategy
is about how you take these individual
businesses, which have a lot of strengths and
some really good people, and merge them
together to create one brand and one team.”
The answer was to create a new umbrella
brand – the Power & Energy Series – which
would encompass some of the PennWell
events and Clarion’s existing events in the
sector and sit within Clarion Energy.
“Historically all those events had been very
successfully run, and we were very happy
with them, but the PennWell acquisition
changed what it was we were looking to do,”
continues Reid. “We naturally had much more
scale; when you’re talking to an exhibitor
you might find that they’re speaking to five
of the other offices, so it made sense to join
everything up.”
The benefits of joining up the global team,
while keeping local offices, were clear. For one
thing, Clarion could maintain relationships
with local markets while at the same time
scaling the offering available to bigger
exhibitors and customers.
“You might find someone’s advertising just
in the European event, and actually they’re
looking to get into Asia,” explains Reid. “We
can now point out that we have an event in
Asia, and by having this Power & Energy
Series brand it’s clear that it’s run by the
same people.”
Another benefit is being able to compare
and contrast various events around the world,
using data gathered from visitors, exhibitors
and the Clarion teams themselves.