CloserStill : 10 years and counting … the awards
Paul Colston profiles a winning organiser machine and one of the big success stories of the global exhibition industry
loserStill , UK-based organiser of numerous leading tradeshows , including the London Vet Show , The Pharmacy Show , The Dentistry Show , Cloud Expo , and a host of other medical , educational and technology events , is not just a serial exhibition launcher and driver of exponential growth , but a serious award-winning machine .
The company most recently claimed a record three gongs at the Digital Event Awards ( all while many of the large organisers who have been loud in their ‘ pivoting to digital ’ remained empty handed ). There have been yet more accolades : from the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to work for ( a hattrick : 2018 , 2019 and 2020 – it isn ’ t running in 2021 , so there will be no quadruple just yet ). And there was a Sunday Times Fastest Growing 200 International Companies award for a sixth year in a row in 2021 .
“ We have been in this Top 200 list for each of the last six years - 2016 to 2021 . This latest award , to an extent , reflects the fact that in 2015 CloserStill was 100 % UK based as is now more than 50 % non-UK ,” says chairman Phil Soar .
“ We generally come in somewhere around 100 ; I think we were 88th this year . What tends to happen is that the Top 10 or so are one-offs with some sudden surge in a particular year . We are pretty steady in our growth .”
While we live in the straitened times of the pandemic , it is perhaps good to remind ourselves of our industry successes and celebrate them , if only to remind our governments of the industry ’ s value .
But let ’ s rewind a little in CloserStill company history : With a name taken from an amalgamation of two Joy Division album titles from the early ‘ 80s , the company was formed by Andy Center , Peter Hodson ( of venture capital group NVM ) and Phil Soar in early 2009 . By November that year they had launched the London Vet Show , with the inaugural event turning over £ 400,000 . Ten years later it had grown 14-fold and the £ 3m start up in 2008 had become a £ 340m company within 10 years , employing over 300 staff .
The first award came in 2010 and in the decade since 53 awards were
Below : Phil Soar , chairman CloserStill put on the shelf .
In one memorable year , 2014 , CloserStill dominated the EN awards in London , taking home 7 / 10 of the gongs on offer .
Phil Soar identifies three reasons for the success , although credits a large dollop of luck being an important part of the mix .
“ Firstly , 2009 was a great time to start a company ( just as 2021 may also be a great time to grow ). It was the depths of the recession after the 2008 crash . Other companies were not launching , not buying , being very cautious . And we then saw , from that low base , continuous economic growth right through to 2017 , when it started to reverse post-Brexit .
“ Secondly , we had no legacy shows . While they can offer good cash flows , they can take up a lot of management and bureaucratic time , they can offer the problem of zero growth , and they can often absorb the best people . We launched and made small acquisitions – that ’ s all we could afford .
“ Thirdly , as we were launching , we could choose our sectors . We went for Medical and Healthcare , E-Learning , E-Commerce and we made a very small acquisition of a Cloud Conference . And we haven ’ t really strayed from that since .”
CloserStill is also unusual in having a philosophy of the staff owning shares ( not options ). Soar explains : “ We launched the company from nothing ; we controlled 100 % of the shares . That allowed us to decide this from the very start . Most managers are not in this position – they find themselves in a situation where there are already shareholders or financial institutions in place . It ’ s the staff who should comment on how valuable a factor this is – but we have seen three major transactions in the last eight years and I seem to recall seeing a lot of happy faces .”
He adds that most senior staff have stayed pretty much the same . One might say , closer still .
22 Issue 2 2021 www . exhibitionworld . co . uk