When events businesses consolidate, what happens to the people?

Scale brings real benefits, but it can split responsibility from authority. That’s when entrepreneurial people switch off.

When I saw the news that Informa had agreed to acquire Clarion Events for around £2.2bn, my first thought wasn't about the deal. It was about the people.

I've worked in events recruitment for 15 years, and I've had countless conversations with candidates and clients about what happens when a business changes. Sometimes it's an acquisition. Sometimes it's rapid growth, a restructure, or a company simply becoming much bigger than it once was.

The question I keep coming back to is this: what happens to people when the business they joined becomes something very different?

The case for consolidation in B2B events

Events industry consolidation is the trend towards fewer, larger organisers buying up independents and challengers. The Informa and Clarion deal is the latest example of how the B2B events market is changing.

The benefits of joining a larger organisation are real: more investment, international reach, greater resources and, often, clearer career paths. For many people, that's exactly what they want.

Mike Seaman, Group CEO of Raccoon Media Group, has worked for both Clarion and UBM (now part of Informa). His view of the deal comes from inside both businesses:

“Just because you get bigger doesn’t mean you make everyone act the same.”

I agree. Scale doesn’t have to come at the expense of creativity or culture. Mike goes further, arguing that “consolidation at the top could actually create more opportunity, not less, for the next generation of event entrepreneurs.”

But I've also seen the other side.

What happens to employees after an acquisition?

It's easy to view an acquisition through revenue, market share, brands and growth. It's harder to ask what it feels like for the person sitting inside the business.

I've spoken to many candidates who joined a company because they loved its entrepreneurial culture. They liked the pace. They had access to senior people. If they had an idea, they could run with it. They felt trusted.

Then the business grows or is acquired, and gradually things shift. More processes. More approval stages. More people involved in decisions that used to happen naturally.

None of this is inherently bad. Large organisations need governance and consistency, and you can't run a global business like a 30-person company.

But somewhere along the way, responsibility and authority can become disconnected. Someone is still accountable for delivering the result, but has far less influence over how they get there.

For naturally entrepreneurial people, that's incredibly frustrating.

People who once had a hand in decision-making find themselves several layers away. People who had a real voice feel their opinions carry less weight. People hired for their ability to make things happen end up spending their time navigating process.

But for others, that same change can open doors. I've spoken to candidates who've always wanted to work for a larger, international business but haven't had the opportunity, or the experience on their CV, to make that move. An acquisition can give them access to bigger events, new markets and career paths they might otherwise have struggled to reach.

Great candidates don't exist in isolation

I've watched high performers struggle in a new environment, not because they lost their ability, but because the conditions that let them perform had changed.

Someone who thrived on autonomy can feel boxed in by layers of approval. Someone brilliant at building an exhibition from scratch may not enjoy managing something already heavily structured.

The reverse is true too. I've seen people who struggled in smaller, less structured businesses flourish in larger ones, with clearer processes, more resources and a defined path forward.

It has made me far more cautious about the idea of a "great candidate" in isolation.

The question isn’t just is this person talented? It’s where will this person be talented?

That's something I always come back to in B2B events recruitment. We help by matching people to the environment where they'll perform best, not simply finding someone who can do the job.

It's often not about size

When senior candidates tell me they want a bigger organisation, the conversation usually moves somewhere else once we dig in.

Often what they're really after is influence. They want to:

• Be trusted

• Have access to decision-makers

• Build a team rather than inherit one

• Create a new revenue stream rather than manage an established one

• Walk into a meeting knowing their opinion matters

And those opportunities can exist in both large events groups and smaller independent organisers.

For anyone considering their next move in B2B events, I'd encourage them to look beyond the company name and ask how much autonomy and ownership the role genuinely offers.

Where does the entrepreneurial talent go?

Events has always been a rich mix: huge international organisers, established independents, founder-led companies and ambitious challengers doing things differently.

Those businesses don't just look different on an org chart. They create different kinds of careers.

If the market moves towards fewer, much larger players, where does all that entrepreneurial talent go?

In response to the acquisition, Anna Abdelnoor, founder of isla, acknowledged the advantages but questioned its impact on people:

"I'm struggling to see the human-case for continued concentration upwards into fewer and fewer owners."

It's a fair point, and one I think deserves more attention alongside the excitement around major deals.

Some people will thrive within bigger groups. Some will start their own businesses. Some will move into start-ups or other industries where they feel they can have more impact.

And some will quietly disengage. That's the outcome I'd worry about most.

How can larger events organisers retain entrepreneurial talent?

I don’t believe consolidation is a bad thing. There are huge benefits to scale, and larger organisations can create fantastic opportunities for businesses and people across the industry.

For events organisers, retaining talent after an acquisition means paying attention to more than who stays. It’s about whether people still feel trusted to contribute, make decisions and take ownership.

Process, structure and scale can’t replace trust, relationships, autonomy and the sense of ownership over what you’re building.

After 15 years of talking to candidates and clients, I think that matters far more than who buys whom next.

Great businesses aren’t built by processes. They’re built by people who feel trusted, heard and empowered to make things happen.

I’d hate to see an increasingly consolidated events industry lose some of its most entrepreneurial people simply because they no longer feel they have somewhere to make a difference.

So perhaps the real question for larger groups is:

How do you gain the benefits of scale without making people feel smaller?

Andrea Pell leads B2B events recruitment at Handle, working with international groups and independent organisers across sales, marketing and events. If your business is going through change, you’re planning your next hire or you’re considering your next career move, get in touch with Andrea.