A Note from our CEO, Vincent Polito

 

A handful of updates to share that I shared with members/future members last week:   

• It’s been busy on the acquisitions front, with several acquisitions taking place. Of recent note would be Informa acquiring Ascential, Hyve acquiring HLTH, Clarion making two acquisitions in the 1:1 space. And trust me, there are a lot of pots being stirred at the moment.  

• Several other members have raised/received additional funding to continue to scale their businesses. Expect to see activity particularly in the US that includes launches/clones as well as acquisitions. Many sponsors have also procured additional funding which should enhance overall event quality. 

• Anna and I have just returned from Barton Creek and the event footprint is ideal for all that Paul Miller (Questex, Incoming Chair of SISO) and the team are planning.    

• This year’s event theme is The Innovation Imperative.  

• In terms of travel, Austin has remarkable international airlift with daily direct flights from London, Amsterdam and other international cities as well great service in North America, https://www.austintexas.gov/department/nonstop-flights-out-aus. For other international locations the travel is pretty efficient.  

• Despite losing members to acquisitions, we picked up five new members in the last two months, some international and some domestic.   

• Chris Skeith is taking the reins at UFI, and Anna Golden is replacing him at AEO.   

• We have a variety of proprietary reports that are in development from partners and others. More on that soon. 

• We have selected Indianapolis as the host of the 2025 SISO Leadership Conference. 

• We are in the process of starting /rebuilding our directory and other enhancements to make communications and information more readily available.   

• I have visited a variety of member events this year, most recently one by Advisor Communications and IMEX, both quite impressive for varied reasons.   

• We are running well ahead on registration as last year at this time, registration was just opening! If you have not received your access code to register, please reach out to Anna. Anna@SISO.org 

• I do completely expect sponsor spaces to be sold out this year. We keep careful watch on the delegate: sponsor ratio which might keep some late sponsors from participating.  If you have not secured your seats already, contact Katherine. katherine@siso.org 

• If you are attending IAEE, and want to get together, please reach out to Anna, Katherine or myself.  Vincent@siso.org