TFM was launched in the late 90s by CMP (now UBM) within Howe and Opie’s team, where they were directors at the time. Subsequently they left to establish IMP Events. There they launched a number of highly successful technology events in the 2000s including Adtech UK in 2004 (subsequently acquired by DMG) and eCommerce Expo in 2006.
Howe and Opie have partnered with CloserStill Media to run TFM. Howe comments “We are delighted to be working with the team at CloserStill who have an incredible track record of investing in and operating award-winning exhibitions in related sectors and we share a common vision for the potential and importance of the event. We also continue to work with the existing teams to explore new and innovative ways to foster even closer relationships between the market and the show’s audiences”
[easy-tweet tweet=”CloserStill Media was named by the Financial Times this April as Europe’s fastest growing exhibition company” hashtags=”Marketing, Exhibition”]
CloserStill was established in 2008 with co-founders Phil Soar, Phil Nelson and Michael Westcott having previously run Ithaca Business Media. There they ran Internet World as well as a number of other highly successful events before also selling the events to UBM in 2007. CloserStill Media was named by the Financial Times this April as Europe’s fastest growing exhibition company and also won the 2017 Exhibition News’ Awards for Best Business Exhibition and Best Exhibition Marketing.
Alexia Maycock, Marketing Director of CloserStill adds. “This is a massively exciting investment for us all. Between us, the team now running TFM have been responsible for running the UK’s most successful marketing and technology events of the last two decades at the phases when they were growing the fastest and delivering the most for their exhibitors”
Opie adds “These are exciting times for martech and the market generally. At no time has innovation in this space been moving faster. We look forward to working with suppliers, users and industry players to help the event become the definitive and interpretive event for marketers looking to develop their strategies and make the most of marketing technology solutions.”
TFM runs 27-28th September at Olympia. The event content will be a key component of how the team plan to develop it and make it more relevant for senior buyers going forward. As the first part of this they are also today announcing a new “Digital Customer Theatre” in association with IMRG, the UK’s association for online retail at the 2017 event. Speaker highlights include Wickes, Diageo, Vodafone, Sainsburys, Mattel, notonthehighstreet.com and Eurostar sharing the latest experiences they have and their plans for harnessing technology. The focus of the team will be to build on the seniority of delegates by making the event more strategic and visionary in its content proposition.
Maycock adds “Even before the deal was done we had put in place a cracking new additional programme; recruited a team of telemarketers to launch a VIP programme; and developed an additional multi-channel marketing campaign to back this up. We will be targeting the UKs biggest organisations by marketing spend which we will then be building on for 2018. We will be working closely with the industry to take the event to the next level”
There has been a fantastic response from the community in regards to this new venture:
‘We were pleased to hear that IMRG and CloserStill are getting involved in TFM – it’s important that we can rely on these events to provide genuinely actionable insight for our teams, and we look forward to seeing how they evolve the proposition to be really compelling for businesses such as ours.’ Neil Sansom, Woolovers
‘The market for events in our space has become very congested and we need to select the ones that will deliver the most useful insight for our teams. We are confident that the team behind TFM will develop it into a must-attend for event in the calendar.’ Johanna Fawcett, Zizzi
‘We are delighted to be working closely with the organisers to help evolve the show proposition to really reflect what businesses like ours want to hear about and make the content compelling, relevant and informative.’ Mark Wright, Jack Wills
‘Bringing together the powerful data that IMRG offers with the reach of TFM, eCommerce Expo and Top 50 Companies, this acquisition is very exciting news for those in retail. I look forward to being involved in helping shape the development of them and seeing the benefits of knowledge and the network they make available to my team.’ Madeleine Melson, Amara
Register here if you would like to attend: https://registration.n200.com/survey/31fj0k5a63naf
Marketing Manager for Compare the Cloud