Norcross, GA – Connect Meetings, organizer of a series of gatherings for buyers and sellers in the meetings-and-business travel industry, has been acquired by Britain’s Tarsus Group plc.
The deal announced December 5 now gives Tarsus 80% of the Atlanta-area company and will bring the Connect Meetings staff to the Tarsus payroll, including CEO Chris Collinson; Collinson who founded the company as Collinson Media & Events. The company had changed its name to Connect Meetings earlier this year.
“Connect Meetings is a strong brand led by an entrepreneurial team with a track record of delivering exceptional growth,” said Tarsus Group Managing Director Doug Emslie. “There is a great opportunity to quicken that growth further by expansion and replication within the U.S. and other selected territories and to launch into new verticals.”
The Connect portfolio has more than two dozen invitation-only conferences, many for regional audiences. There are also specialty events for organizers of incentive, corporate, religious and sporting events. The company’s main event is Connect Marketplace, which this year drew around 3,200 planners and suppliers to the Gaylord in Grapevine, TX and resulted in 44,518 one-on-one appointments.
The Connect deal was announced in the weeks following Tarsus’ acquisition of INTEX in China. The U.S. and China are high-priority regions in Tarsus’ growth strategy. “These acquisitions tick all of the boxes of our strategy,” Emslie said. “We are also pleased to have acquired Connect Meetings as companies of this size are increasingly becoming difficult to find.”
Reach Doug Emslie at +44 (0)20 8846 2700 or douglas.emslie@tarsus.com; Chris Collinson at (770) 582-9700 or ccollinson@connectmeetings.com
