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That may be the case, but is by no means guaranteed.
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Nick De Bois
on Brexit
Informa Exhibitions unveils rebrand to Informa Markets
Informa Markets, the division of
Informa previously known as Informa
Exhibitions, has introduced a new name,
brand identity and corporate website.
The announcement comes less than
a year after the organiser announced
the acquisition of UBM in a deal worth
£3.9bn. EN sat down with Charlie
McCurdy, Informa Markets CEO, to
learn more about the rebrand and the
continued integration of UBM.
Tell us about the origins of the
rebrand
We saw an opportunity as we put
together two very similar-sized
organisations to create a common brand
that represented what everyone set out
to do in their day-to-day work. Over
the last three or four years, we’ve been
stressing that not only do we want to be
really effective organisers of exhibitions
but also to look at the dynamics of
the markets that we serve in a more
comprehensive way, in a practice that
we have called ‘being a market maker’.
That puts us in a position where we’ve
made tremendous progress in not only
how we conduct the exhibition business
but how we add to it through digital and
data-driven activities in the markets that
we cover.
Can you tell us more about plans to
expand digital and data side of the
business?
The exhibition business is a wonderful
business. The excitement of staging
an event is palpable. At the same time,
underlying all of those activities are the
interfaces we have with exhibitors and
visitors. We generate a lot of data, and
a lot of content comes into our orbit,
and so what we’re able to do is create a
deeper understanding of the dynamics
of an industry or a marketplace and do a
better job of linking people.
We have been reinforcing existing
business in a more effective way using
the data that we have. By having the
data structured similarly, and able to
be pooled in a meaningful way, we
can understand different suppliers’
behaviours in different regions of the
world, and different buyers’ interests,
and use that to direct a more productive
experience on the show floor and
beyond.
What’s next for Informa Markets?
UBM’s portfolio and Informa’s legacy
portfolio are, by and large, are quite
strong and performing well, so the
number one job is to just let that success
continue.
Having said that, we’re quite excited
about what we can do incrementally as
an organising company through cross-
selling and through cross-launching
events both on a co-located basis and
on a freestanding basis. Our ability to
leverage technologies consistently across
portfolios is very exciting as far as our
ability to market better, sell better and
create digital connectivity in a way that
complements our events.
May — 09