Overland Park, KS – Cameron Bishop returned to the offices of Ascend Event Media outside Kansas City September 1 after he and his partners at the equity firm TGP Investments, LLC acquired the company that Bishop founded in 2002.
Terms of the acquisition of Ascend Event Media from Ascend Media Holdings were not announced. The firm produces show dailies and other event-related communications. Berkery Noyes was the financial advisor to Ascend Media Holdings on the sale.
“Same offices, same phone number and just about all of the same people,” Bishop told Trade Show Executive during his first day back since 2007, when he stepped down as CEO of Ascend Media amid a company-wide restructuring. “There are also about nine million things that need to be done.”
The trade show industry has changed rapidly in recent years as events have become increasingly wrapped around social media, handheld wireless devices and e-mail blasts. Bishop said Ascend Event Media was already running with the ball by providing services ranging from Twitter account management and its Event365 products to the print show dailies.
“As the trade show industry has evolved with media and technology, it has actually moved Ascend’s business right into the sweet spot of where media is going,” Bishop said. “We have a very unique and sophisticated company that can create and manage content for clients.”
The need is for content that will keep attendees engaged in the show not only while it is underway but long before it begins and long after it ends. That workload can be more than some associations or show management firms can handle on their own.
“We’re finding that their need to communicate with their constituents and the customers on a regular basis is an increasingly important part of their overall strategy,” Bishop said. “But they are finding out that it is a very labor-intensive process and requires a very experienced skills set. We can provide that capability for them because we do it full-time and our ramp-up times are much faster.”
Reach Cam Bishop at (913) 469-1110 or cbishop@ascendmedia.com
