“It’s lonely at the top.” That’s how I opened a recent LinkedIn post about the thinking behind the (then) upcoming Event Agency C-Suite Summit. Until then, there’d been no place for event agency C-suite leaders to gather and discuss common challenges in confidence, exchange ideas and share best practices. There was no forum for cultivating a support network among true peers.

Despite playing an increasingly important role in the events ecosystem, and driving a growing share of overall event spend, there’s no professional home for agencies, let alone their executive leadership. Seemingly every other faction within the events industry has their own association, except agencies, and shockingly little content at industry conferences is geared toward them. Whether intentional or not, event agencies are treated as the ugly stepchild.

That all changed on May 12th, when 98 agency leaders and investors from around the world gathered for the inaugural Event Agency C-Suite Summit in NYC. For those who attended, running an agency is a lot less lonely now.

In this issue:

• Insights from the first Event Agency C-Suite Summit

• What’s keeping agency leaders up at night

• What we did right, and where to improve

• Hyve’s 18x valuation, and what that says about events - and event businesses - being undervalued still

• Encore files to go public

• LEO Events is acquired by the Hoffman Family of Companies

• Brands At Work buys Chorus

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M&A Updates

Lots of M&A activity over the past month. I’ll go into more detail on what this means for the event industry in my next post, but here are some highlights.

• After Clarion failed to secure an exit last year_, M&A activity has returned with a vengeance in the independent trade show organizer space, with four of the top companies changing hands in the past 5 weeks alone, all by private equity firms.

  • CloserStill Media was acquired by Searchlight Capital Partners and Providence Equity Partners for $1.77B, a valuation of around 13-15 times earnings.

  • Apollo made headlines by acquiring not one but two companies, Questex and Emerald, for around $2B, or 12-13x.

  • Last but most definitely not least, Hyve sold to Hellman & Friedman for $1.8B, in what amounts to a whopping 18 times earnings. Paying an 18x multiple is expensive, so their investment thesis seems to be that that with all the tailwinds powering in-person events forward (chief among them how AI is disrupting other marketing channels), so the PE firms’ investment theses is that events - and event businesses - are undervalued right now.

• The Hoffman Family of Companies acquired LEO Events, the award-winning, Tennessee-based experiential agency built by Kevin Brewer, Cindy Brewer and Kent Underwood. It’ll be interesting to see whether LEO becomes acquisitive with this new ownership backing their growth plans.

• Brands At Work acquired Chorus, in a move designed to to strengthen its offering across experiential marketing, creative communications and brand engagement. Both companies are UK-based, though BAW launched their NYC office two years ago as part of a global expansion effort.

• Encore has filed to go public, looking to raise $500 million, primarily to retire some of their massive $2.3B debt load. It’s going to be interesting to see how this IPO gets priced, in part because Encore has lost money the last three years, thought they cut their losses dramatically from -$176M in 2024 to -$27M last year. A big chunk of those losses is from debt service, which Blackstone incurred when they bought the company in 2018 (when it was still called PSAV). Their Adjusted EBITDA is around $466 million, meaning it’s a relatively profitable business when you remove the interest payments. Encore is a mature business, only growing at 5% a year, which is probably part of why they acquired FIRST agency in December, looking to capitalize on the higher growth rates agencies are experiencing.

Insights from the Agency C-Suite Summit

Last month I co-hosted the inaugural Event Agency C-Suite Growth Summit in NYC with micebook founder and CEO Chetan Shah, bringing together 98 owners, executives and investors from event agencies across the U.S., Canada, the UK and Europe for a full day of no-holds-barred conversation. This grew out of several C-Suite dinners we held last year, at which participants kept asking for a deeper dive into the topics we discussed, and more time to connect with their peers.

The day opened with each table sharing their biggest challenges, and closed with a post-event survey that confirmed what we heard in the room. In between were ten sessions on stage covering AI, talent, M&A, scaling and more, along with informal breakout discussions by topic area.

By just about every key metric, the event was a home run. I realize I’m biased, but this was backed up by an excellent 81.4 NPS® score, a slew of glowing testimonials on LinkedIn, and numerous emails we received. This was a labor of love for me - building the event and community I wish I’d had access to when I ran my agencies - so seeing and hearing how impactful the day was has truly warmed my heart.

What Worked, and What Could Be Improved

What made it so successful? Based on dozens of individual conversations, and backed up by survey results, here are the reasons, along with potential areas for improvement:

1. The Quality of Attendees

We were very diligent in curating the room, ensuring only C-suite or equivalent level, and it showed. This was the number one reason people gave the event high marks. In addition, we didn’t allow vendors, other than the handful of sponsors who participated. Hard as it was to turn away paying attendees, we did refund a number of registrations who didn’t fit these criteria.

We also had a good mix of experiential, incentive, and meeting focused agencies. There’s an increasing crossover within those areas, and far more commonalities than differences, so the diversity of focus area provided a healthy blend of ideas.

There was diversity of size as well, with a number of firms with fewer than 20 employees, combined with many larger agencies with hundreds of team members, such as George P. Johnson, FIRST, Opus Group, Unbridled, NVE, Strata, BCD, MCI and others.

Area for improvement: A number of people who lead smaller agencies wanted to connect and discuss challenges that may be unique to them. Next year we’ll build in engagement opportunities for attendees of various subgroups like this.

Geographically, over 70% of attendees flew in from out of town, from across the U.S., Canada and Europe. Given how busy people at this level are, I was humbled and grateful that they were willing to take time out of their schedules, a testament to the value they clearly ascribed to the event.

2. A True Sense of Community

One sentiment that was inescapable was the sense of hunger among everyone for a forum designed specifically for them, a place to connect with their real peers. As mentioned above, agencies are one of the few (only?) sectors in the events industry without a home, and the the feeling of having finally found one, even if it was just for a day, was palpable.

What further cemented this perception was everyone realizing that we’re all struggling with the same issues. Seemingly regardless of size, focus area, client types, location and other variables, agencies are dealing with the same challenges. This was evident in the opening session, when each table discussed what was keeping them up at night, then reported those issues out to the rest of the room, met by choruses of nods. More on what those issues are below.

Area for improvement: A few people suggested building in opportunities for participants to connect in 1-on-1 meetings with each other. Whether that’s done through the event app, or more of a crowd-sourced method, we’ll work on ways to facilitate those connections next time.

3. Being Open and Vulnerable

In my opening remarks I stressed the importance of everyone being open and vulnerable in sharing what they’re going through, and being generous in exchanging ideas with each other. We tried to model that behavior in the sessions, and all the speakers did a great job of sharing insider details related to their topics.

That’s not easy to do, as business leaders are prone to put up a good front even when they’re struggling. But vulnerability begets more vulnerability, and that was the spirit that permeated the day.

“It felt like a true safe space for founders and owners — and it was a welcome change not to be surrounded by vendors pitching for my business,” said Don Strom of Salt Productions and Pinch Creative.

4. Quality & Pace of Programming

In curating the content for this audience, my biggest fear was that the C-suite leaders in the room would get bored or distracted by the gazillion things on their plates, so we kept a brisk pace throughout the day. Solo presenter sessions were limited to 20 minutes, panels to 30 minutes. Every session could have gone longer, but I thought it would be better to leave people wanting more, than having people’s attention start to drift.

In the end, we wound up with 23 speakers across 10 sessions, which was a lot. But there was such an incredible body of knowledge and experience in the room, that I wanted to platform as many voices as possible.

In addition to the mainstage presentations, we had two windows for open discussion, where participants could choose from 12 different topic groups to engage in facilitated conversations.

Areas for improvement: There was general consensus that people wanted more time for these curated discussions, which we’ll build next year. In addition, since such a large portion of attendees came in from out of town, it probably makes sense to expand the event to 1.5 or 2 days, to accommodate this broader variety of content and engagement. Doing so would also allow us to cover some topics in breakouts that are of significant importance, but to a smaller audience, like the economics of sustainability.

What’s Keeping Agency Leaders Up At Night

One of the highlights of the day was the opening session, where each table shared the biggest challenges on their minds. Combined with post-event survey data, we have a remarkably candid snapshot of what's on people’s minds — and in a few cases, what's actually giving them reason for optimism.

Here's what emerged:

1. M&A: The Cultural Hangover

About half the people in the room are actively looking at buying other agencies or selling their own, or they’ve recently been acquired themselves. Indeed, the M&A breakout discussion was the largest of the topics.

Our PE panel, the most highly rated session of the day, offered a useful dose of honesty on this. Andy Howard of Shamrock Capital — which looks at 700–800 opportunities per year and makes only 3–5 investments — put it plainly: "Sometimes the math looks really enticing. One plus one equals three, if not four. In reality, you're lucky if it equals two — and realizing that culture really is important."

The integration panel added even sharper texture. Rob Adams of Bishop McCann, which has acquired 10 companies over the years ranging from 5 to 100 employees (and has never cut anyone from an acquisition), said there's one word that comes up in every founder conversation about selling: "Legacy. With every founder, without exception, that is what they're looking for."

And there's a sobering statistic for any founder considering a sale: roughly 75% of acquired founders don't stay more than two years post-deal. Trevor Hanks of Cohera, himself a founder who went through a merger, described it this way: "There's a point where — and I say this proudly — I'm here to support this company, I'm here to be the biggest cheerleader I possibly can, but also have the humility to know I'm not the right fit for the entire thing."

One other dynamic worth flagging: founders who stay post-acquisition need to be vigilant about not becoming what Adams calls a "silent resistor." Your team is watching you. If you seem uncertain or disengaged, even unconsciously, it spreads.

Mike Struble of EagleTree Capital had perhaps the best advice for founders evaluating PE partners: "Ask for a reference where it hasn't gone perfectly. Ask for something that's been maybe a little bit difficult — that's when you really find out what kind of partner you're talking to."

2. AI: In the Same Ocean, But the Tide Is Rising

Every single table raised AI. And yet the dominant emotion wasn't panic — it was a kind of collective uncertainty. As one attendee put it, they felt like they were "swimming in the same ocean," meaning no one feels dramatically ahead or behind, which was oddly comforting.

The sessions on stage pushed the conversation deeper. Janette Roush, Head of AI at Brand USA, opened with a distinction that landed hard in the room: "Most of us are using AI, but very few of us are actually working inside of it. And the gap between using AI and working inside of AI — that's what I want to explore." It's a subtle but important distinction — the difference between using ChatGPT to draft an email and having AI integrated into every layer of how you operate.

One of the most practical insights came from a Gallup study Roush cited: if a direct supervisor uses AI, 79% of their team will also use it. If the supervisor doesn't use it, only 34% will. The implication for agency leaders is direct — AI adoption isn't a training problem, it's a leadership behavior problem.

On the pricing question — how do you charge for AI-driven work when billing models are built on hours or headcount? — the sessions surfaced a reframe worth sitting with. Melissa Van Dyke from Creative Group put it this way: "AI isn't our strategy. It's what strengthens and accelerates our strategy." Their team is factoring AI-driven time savings directly into their 2027 pricing model, targeting tools that will save talent 10–25% of their time. That's not a small bet.

3. Talent: The Contractor Paradox

Talent was the other universal theme — both attracting it and holding onto it. But the most interesting and nuanced conversation was around contractors. Multiple tables flagged what I'd call the contractor paradox: the most talented freelancers increasingly prefer to stay independent, which creates a double bind. You can't hire them full-time, but clients sometimes question why so much of the work is being done by non-employees.

Tracy Judge, founder of Soundings — which has built a community of over 4,000 freelance event professionals — brought a useful framework to the talent retention session. She described healthy company culture as "live jazz. It's not perfect. People are sometimes off, then they're playing together, trying new things. If somebody is messing up, somebody else is jumping in and helping collaborate... we have to get away from thinking that culture is always going to be perfect."

Her co-panelist Scott Lucius of Unbridled Solutions offered a version of this that's stuck with me: "We hire people over positions. We want to find the best collection of people we possibly can, put them in the best position to be successful." He also noted that values only truly matter when they cost you something — a client you turn away, a decision that hurts short-term revenue but protects your team. "If it costs you something, you know you're actually living by your values."

4. Scaling: Evolving Leadership Focus with Growth

Scaling came up everywhere, but it took different forms depending on who was talking. One agency leader (~120 people) is focused on international expansion beyond Canada. Another table wrestled with a pipeline that's grown faster than their ability to evaluate which opportunities are worth pursuing.

The scaling panel — featuring Reggie Aggarwal of Cvent and Ryan Simonetti of Convene Hospitality Group — was a masterclass in founder psychology. Few founders make it all the way from startup to 10-figure enterprises, since each stage of growth requires different focus areas, so I was eager to hear these two leaders share how their approaches evolved over time.

Ryan's line that will stick with me: "Success is a lousy teacher. I'm a byproduct of all the bad decisions, not the good ones — and all of the failures, which have been many." 

Reggie, whose company now has ~6,000 employees, offered a different lens: "We're still, to this day, a very paranoid company. That guy and gal in the garage starting a company — we're like, hey, that can disrupt us. We're always hungry, always grateful, but always a little paranoid." Paranoia, in this context, is a feature, not a bug.

Reggie also shared a benchmark that surprised people: Cvent spends 40–45% of its marketing budget on events. The B2B benchmark is 20–25%. His point was simple: events work.

5. Pricing: A Three-Way Squeeze

Multiple tables independently landed on pricing as a pressure point. The trifecta: internal costs are rising, client budgets are flat or shrinking, and well-capitalized acquirers are coming in with competitive bids that independent agencies can't always match.

One executive framed it as a definitional challenge: "I'm always defining productivity versus efficiency, and how do we articulate that differently to our clients?" 

That question gets sharper when AI enters the equation. If AI makes your team twice as productive, do you charge the same? More? Less? There's no industry consensus yet, which is exactly why it came up at every table.

6. Disruption: Geopolitical, Not Just Technological

Several tables surfaced a broader theme beyond AI: the general disorder of the world as a business disruptor. Shorter client timelines, unrealistic approval cycles, and geopolitical uncertainty were all cited. The disruption panel added something we didn't fully hear in the opening roundtables — the direct, material impact of US political dynamics on event bookings.

Jennifer Collins of JDC Events, which has worked in federal government events for 20+ years, put it starkly: "Last year when the new administration came in, we lost 10 contracts. It was devastating — more so than COVID was." Her business has since recovered, but the speed of that loss was a gut punch.

There's also a broader international dynamic at play. Steve Quah of Cheerful Twentyfirst noted that global companies headquartered in New York are rerouting events to Europe simply because of sentiment around US travel: "They're going to Europe for the next two years." 

Meanwhile, on the client side, Brett Hyman of NVE pointed to a shift in how CMOs are thinking about experiential: "CMOs are finally arriving at the conclusion that the audience is really a distribution network to a community and to a larger network — and they can't buy access to that through all their other channels."

The operational frustrations were equally real. Timelines continue to compress, often to the point of being unrealistic, and multi-layer executive approval at large clients creates circular creative conversations that drain agency teams without moving the work forward.

Looking back, there’s been a consistent pattern in how both the events industry and the broader economy and stock markets respond to seismic changes: disruption → pause → strong rebound. Something happens that causes companies to pause their activity, but within a short period of time things come roaring back.

The industry has done it before — after COVID, after geopolitical shock, after tariff turbulence. The fundamentals of what agencies do remain strong, and if anything, the chaos makes in-person experience more valuable, not less.

7. The One Bright Spot Everyone Agreed On

One table — made up entirely of founders — shifted the conversation to something more hopeful. Their observation: the experiential industry is having a genuine moment right now, and what they do cannot be replicated by AI. Live experience is real, irreplaceable, and increasingly in demand.

Ryan Simonetti put it with conviction in the scaling session: "You can make a logical, rational argument that live event, live experience gathering is the opposite side of the AI trade. I'm going to go long on this."

What This All Means

Standing back, what struck me most about the day is how similar the challenges are across agencies of very different sizes, geographies and specialties. Whether you're a 20-person boutique in London or a 500-person firm in Chicago, you're grappling with the same fundamental questions: How do I price for an AI-augmented world? How do I build and keep great teams? How do I grow without losing what made us good in the first place?

There are no clean answers yet. But that's precisely why conversations like this matter — and why we'll be doing this again.

Here’s to taking your event business to the next level!

Howard Givner
Senior Advisor | Oaklins: DeSilva & Phillips (M&A)
CEO | Heathcote Advisory Group (Consulting)

Catch up on recent articles:

• Narrow & Deep | Iran War Impact | Agency Summit Update

• Gradually and then Suddenly: the Widening Eventprofs AI Gap

• A Slew of Event M&A Deals to End the Year

• Q4 M&A Update: Bullish on the Industry, Cautious on Deals

• Mastering the Exit Strategy: Insights On Selling Event Businesses

• The View From Private Equity

• Tailwinds

• Preparing Your Event Business For Sale

If and when you’re ready, here are ways I work with event business owners and executives:

• Business Coaching & Owner Accountability

• Business Diagnostic & Company Valuation

• Growth Consulting

• Exit Planning

• M&A (Buy Side & Sell Side)

Wanna chat? Email me to schedule a call.

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