After virus affected one trade show, Portland company acquires another
Photo / Peter Van Allen
Diversified Communications, whose Portland headquarters employs about 200 people, has acquired an international trade show focused on energy storage.
Two weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic forced Diversified Communications to postpone an international trade show it produces, the Portland-based media and events company has acquired another one.
Diversified purchased Energy Storage North America from producer ESNA Expo LLC for an undisclosed price, according to a news release Tuesday.
Coincidentally, Tuesday had been slated the third and final day of Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America, a Boston conference and expo Diversified said on March 3 it was rescheduling because of the coronavirus crisis.
The company postponed that event after receiving "hundreds of calls and emails" about related health, safety and travel concerns.
Diversified produces trade shows and publications for over 15 industries. In February, it acquired a conference focused on the British aquaculture industry, Aquaculture UK.
The most recent addition, ESNA, is the largest conference, exhibition and networking event covering grid-connected energy storage in North America, the release said. The annual show, which launched in 2012, attracted 100 exhibitors and over 2,000 attendees from 30 countries last year.
Diversified will hold ESNA in 2021 in conjunction with another energy industry conference, Intersolar North America, which the company acquired last year. The pairing of a solar-industry event with one focused on the field of energy storage is a good match, according to the co-founder of ESNA.
“Energy storage is the perfect complement to renewables like solar — and it makes sense to bring together the market makers from both sectors at one convening,” said Janice Lin, CEO of Strategen, a California energy consulting company.
Diversified said that over the past two years, energy storage has accounted for more than 30% of the exhibits at Intersolar North America.
Renewable energy appears to be a growing specialty for Diversified. In addition to its acquisition of Intersolar, the company picked up two other related events in March 2019: ees (electrical energy storage) and Power2Drive North America.
Diversified also owns and operates a 1.5-megawatt solar farm at Brunswick Landing, which opened in December 2017.
"Renewable energy production and energy storage is critical to the world’s transition to a low carbon energy system and we continue to be focused on making investments in that space,” said Oakley Dyer, corporate vice president at Diversified.
“Following the acquisition of Intersolar North America last year and now ESNA, we will be looking for other acquisition opportunities in the near- and long-term."
ESNA and Intersolar North America are scheduled for Jan. 12-14, 2021, in Long Beach, Calif. Diversified has not yet released information about rescheduling its Boston seafood trade show.
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