• Tony Lorennz, the CEO of the leading event management firm Patti Roscoe & Associates (PRA), recently declared in an interview that the event industry remains fragmented.

• According to the interview, the largest meeting and conference company in North America, which is PRA, only holds 15% of the entire US market share. The CEO of PRA declared the market to be very competitive in nature with several options available to consumers.

• The meeting and event management technology market, a subsegment of the meeting and event industry, is believed to have consolidated according to Mike Burns, Aventri’s chief revenue officer. Aventri is regarded as a global leader in cloud-based data-driven event management and venue sourcing solutions.

• As it stands, consolidation among the meeting industry providers is on the rise and expected to continue at an increased rate well into the foreseeable future, according to PRA's CEO. Consolidation in the industry is expected to bring about improved product offerings, the stability of providers, and few downsides such as fewer purchasing options, which can lead to higher prices.

• Some recent examples of consolidation in this space include PSAV's acquisition of Hargrove, a leading experiential events and exhibitions production company, and Cvent's acquisition of QuickMobile, a pioneer of mobile event apps.

• The entire North American meetings and events industry is currently valued at $362 billion in 2018.

Summary Of Our Early Findings Relevant To The Goals

• In our initial hour of research, we were able to provide useful insights into the current state of the industry regarding whether or not it's fragmented, and if the industry is set to witness more instances of consolidation in the nearest future.

• Due to time constraints, we were not able to identify any examples of private capital investments in the space in the last two years.