Recruitment
From Sale to Scale
Miranda Martin MD, tfconnect takes a look inside the event industry’ s new leadership playbook and notes how creative dealmakers, strategic launchers, and culture-first leaders are defining the next generation of growth
t’ s been a busy few
I months at tfconnect. We continue to partner with leaders of Private Equity-backed organisers who are eyeing exits over the next 6 – 18 months. These leaders are looking ahead, thinking not just about the sale itself, but about how to structure their teams for growth beyond it. The focus is on taking already strong, market-leading businesses and turning them into high-growth machines that can deliver the next owner’ s vision.
A consistent theme we’ re seeing is demand for people with creative and complex commercial capabilities – individuals obsessed with value creation, who can identify and deliver high-value deal-making opportunities to enterprise clients within their event frameworks. These are not just skilled operators; they’ re commercially imaginative leaders who see the art and science of growth.
We’ re also seeing appetite for strategic launch leadership. Not just the gritty mavericks who run into the fire to make things happen, but also the thoughtful strategists who can analyse risk, define the plan, and build the business case – before setting those mavericks loose. In larger businesses, launching is rarely anyone’ s day job, which means opportunities are often left on the table. Leaders who can bring discipline and structure to the launch process are increasingly valuable.
When it comes to appointing senior leaders, chemistry remains king. No matter how accomplished a candidate may be, they won’ t thrive – or even be hired – if the chemistry isn’ t right. It’ s a powerful reminder of tfconnect’ s long-held mantra: culture and chemistry fit always outweigh pure skillset.
As businesses prepare to scale, many are also grappling with a familiar tension – introducing more rigorous sales processes and structures
Above: Miranda Martin
“ In larger businesses, launching is rarely anyone’ s day job, which means opportunities are often left on the table”
without demotivating their top-billing, long-serving sales teams. Just as an organisation readies itself for sale, the last thing anyone wants is years of knowledge walking out the door. Yet true growth requires more visibility, efficiency, and strategic oversight. Senior sales leaders who can instil this structure while keeping teams inspired are in particularly high demand.
Content leading In 2025, we’ ve seen a notable shift toward content-led event models rather than purely square-metre-driven ones. Evolving formats, guided by audience needs, are creating richer cross-sell pathways and more enterprise-level deal-making opportunities.
Internationally, there’ s a buzz of Anglo-German collaboration, led by the pioneering JV between Raccoon Media Group and Messe München to manage the ISPO trade show( see p34-35-ed) and tfconnect is delighted to be co-hosting an event series starting in January 2026, connecting UK and German organisers as we ride the wave of cross-border collaboration.
We’ re also seeing progressive moves in France, where one organiser is succession planning by bringing in talent from outside the industry to run a legacy trade show division – a bold step that promises to inject fresh strategic thinking. Another is re-structuring its leadership to ensure a smooth CEO transition.
One ongoing challenge? Rigid office policies. We continue to see some clients struggle to attract the best talent, particularly in regional locations with strict five-day office requirements. In a world where flexibility has become a core component of seniorlevel attraction, this remains a blind spot for some.
We see some exciting new projects for 2026 across the Middle East and a growing wave of M & A-driven team structuring. It’ s shaping up to be a year defined by transformation – and the leaders who can deliver it. EW
50 Issue 6 2025 www. exhibitionworld. co. uk