Northstar Travel Group Acquires Industry-Leading Sports, Events and Meetings Platforms from Schneider Publishing
SECAUCUS, NJ (April 3, 2017) – Northstar Travel Group announced today it has acquired the TEAMS Conference + Expo and Meetings Quest conferences, including Sports Travel and Association News, from Schneider Publishing.
Timothy Schneider, president and CEO of Schneider Publishing, joins Northstar Travel Group as founder and chairman of the company’s new Sports Division. The division will be an integral part of Northstar’s Meetings Group, which includes Meetings & Conventions, Successful Meetings, Meeting News and Incentive, and the Group’s integrated data, digital, and in-person event platforms.
“Sporting events are an exciting, fast-growing, specialized meetings-industry segment, catering to diverse audiences with distinct needs,” said Tom Kemp, chairman and CEO of Northstar Travel Group. “Schneider Publishing’s SportsTravel brand and their TEAMS Conference have built a reputation as a key partner to sports-event organizers and the destinations and hoteliers who serve them. This acquisition is another important step in the transformation of Northstar into a marketing solutions company serving all key segments of the travel and meetings industries.”
“Our strategy to serve the widest variety of meeting planners, and the suppliers who serve them, is further enhanced with the addition of Association News and the Meetings Quest conferences,” said David Blansfield, executive vice president and group publisher of Northstar’s Meetings Group. “Schneider Publishing’s extensive databases and relationships complement and expand our capabilities in the corporate, association, and specialty meetings markets, as well as provide an immediate leadership position in sports.”
“Finding the right strategic partner with the necessary capabilities over a range of areas – event management, digital media, and database marketing, to name a few – was important to me to scale the business,” said Timothy Schneider. “Working with Tom, David and the Northstar team, we’ll be leveraging Northstar’s strengths to enhance and expand our offerings in service of our customers.”
TEAMS is the world’s leading conference and expo for the sports-event industry. Presented in association with the SportsTravel media brand, TEAMS ’17 will be held Oct. 30 – Nov. 2, 2017, in Orlando. Launched in 1998, TEAMS attracts more than 1,000 attendees including CEOs, executive directors and event managers from sports organizations as well as representatives from sports commissions and convention bureaus, corporate sponsors, event suppliers, and other hospitality industry opinion leaders. Now in its 19th year, TEAMS has defined the sports-event and appointment-based trade-show industries.
Meetings Quest is the live-show counterpart to Association News, and is the longest-running series of trade shows for meeting planners in the U.S.
Included in Northstar’s acquisition of Schneider Publishing’s sports- and meetings-industry assets, the company has also acquired the rights to the Shamrock Shootout Golf Classic, the longest-running golf tournament in the hospitality industry, which has been recently named the exclusive golf tournament of the IMEX America trade show, which will be held Oct. 10–12, 2017, in Las Vegas.
About Schneider Publishing
Schneider Publishing provides events and conferences, media and information products and services to suppliers and organizers for sports, associations and corporate meetings and events through its leading brands – Association News and SportsTravel magazines, and its TEAMS Conference and Meetings Quest trade-show series.
About Northstar Travel Group
Northstar is the owner of well-known brands including Travel Weekly, TravelAge West, Business Travel News, Successful Meetings, Meetings & Conventions, Travel Weekly China, Incentive, M&C China, and Web in Travel. The company produces more than 50 face-to-face events in 13 countries in retail travel, corporate travel, travel technology, and the meetings industry. In addition, Northstar owns Phocuswright, the leading research, business intelligence, and event producer serving the fastest growing segment of the travel industry, online travel distribution. Northstar is also the majority shareholder in Inntopia, the leading SaaS e-commerce software provider serving the mountain destination, activities, and specialty destination travel markets.
Based in Secaucus, NJ, the company also has offices in New York, NY; Glen Ellyn, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Winston-Salem, NC; Stowe, VT; and global offices in Singapore, Beijing, and Shanghai. Wasserstein Partners IV acquired Northstar Travel Group in June 2016.
About Wasserstein Partners IV
Wasserstein Partners IV is a mid-market buyout fund managed by WP Capital Management, the private equity investment company formerly associated with Wasserstein Perella Group and Wasserstein & Co. The firm manages capital on behalf of institutional and individual investors. Its investment activities are focused on the media and communications, consumer products and water and industrial sectors. WP Capital’s investment team has completed 27 platform acquisitions and 51 add-on acquisitions over a 23-year period. WP Capital is located in New York. For more information, visit www.wasserco.com.
For more information, please contact:
David Blansfield
Executive Vice President & Group Publisher
Northstar Meetings Group
201.902.1901 | dblansfield@ntmllc.com