Meetings and events venue provider Convene has boosted its presence on both sides of the Atlantic by acquiring rival operator etc.venues.
Convene, which already manages 22 venues across seven cities in the US and UK, will add another 16 new locations through the etc.venues acquisition including properties in London, Manchester and Birmingham, as well as three venues in New York City. Financial details of the transaction have not been revealed.
Ryan Simonetti, CEO and co-founder of Convene, said: “The London and New York City markets continue to rebound at a tremendous pace post-Covid with demand for outsourced premium meeting and event solutions accelerating from clients and landlords alike.
“The acquisition of an organisation with such an unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality meeting and event experiences allows Convene to expand our ability to serve our clients in more places and exciting new ways.”
Etc.venues was set up in London in 1992 to provide venues for events, training and conferences. The company hosted 19,000 events for 3,100 clients in 2019. Its UK venues include the historic County Hall on the banks of the Thames in central London.
Alastair Stewart, managing director of etc.venues, added: “As we set our sights on expansion into the US, we realised the natural synergy and alignment with Convene and are really looking forward to what's next as our two world-class firms join forces.”
The two companies said it would be taking steps to “fully integrate” their operations over the next few months but stressed there would be “no immediate changes to existing events, programming, packages, pricing nor operations”.