Strategic Support to Clarion Events

An independent strategic assessment of the attractiveness of Clarion Events to support its sale process.

Clarion has an extensive portfolio of exhibitions and conferences across the globe. Our vendor commercial due diligence analysed its six main industry sectors and the key events within each one. We also provided an objective validation of its forecasts.

Key questions investigated:

• What are the fundamentals of the events industry and what are the levers for organiser success?
• What is the health and outlook of Clarion’s served markets?
• What is the quality and sustainability of the key events?
• How realistic are growth forecasts, and what is the upside?

Selected key insights:

• The events industry has a fundamentally positive long-term outlook although trends such as increased scrutiny of marketing RoI and the roles of data and digital are coming into play

• Clarion’s portfolio growth has been driven both by existing events and new launches, as well as by small acquisitions and by other initiatives, particularly in the attractive Energy and Defence sectors. It has also shifted its center of gravity to high growth geographies, such as Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East
• Price optimisation has been successful in selected sectors with high exhibitor ROI and low price sensitivity
• Clarion is a rare example of a success story in both conferences and exhibitions, spreading best practice between the two disciplines
• The risk of event failure has been reduced by limiting dependency on major associations and events dominated by a small number of bellwethers. The introduction of a strict gateway process for new launches has also been beneficial

How we helped:

We identified the value and volume growth drivers within the portfolio based on a detailed analysis of the KPIs of selected events, supported by an extensive primary and secondary research programme. As a result, a clear understanding of the company’s competitive positioning and to validate the achievability of the business plan, as well as to identify challenged areas. This helped management to identify potential improvement areas which the business will now go on to pursue with its new owners.

“Thank you for the excellent work, it is greatly appreciated – this has been the best support that we have ever received from a professional advisor.