Following U.K.-based event design and management provider The Human Network's acquisition of Ireland-based travel management company Beyond Business Travel last month, the companies' CEOs said they are ready for ambitious expansion plans and to "shake up" the event sector.
As a "collective of brands and agencies that are united by experience," The Human Network has been eyeing an acquisition into the travel space for several years, CEO Michael Gietzen said. The network was built on "delivering events and moments" and "challenging the norm of why things are done," he said. As an example, he cited the food offerings of typical events, which are "beige sandwiches, beige sausages rolls and beige cookies."
"The customer has spent millions, traveling people there, renting the venue and putting on the production," Gietzen said. "Yet, they could have worked with the chefs at the venue catering team to provide the best brainfood throughout the event."
With the acquisition of Beyond Business Travel, which has offices in Dublin and Belfast, the network now "can bolt on seamless integration of travel into those major events," he said. "Moving Mr. or Mrs. CEO from one place to another is one element, and moving 10,000 staff to an event is a very different element, and those are two low-hanging fruit where we want to land and expand where that is a special moment for our customers."
Gietzen said those combined specialized services will "disrupt the market," compared with other integration in the space.
"TMCs buy TMCs, or TMCs buy small event production companies to bring that into their service," he said. "We, the largest independently owned event agency in Europe, are moving into the market but don't think anyone has the experience and capability of delivering events."
As with the other agencies under The Human Network's umbrella, Beyond Business Travel will maintain its independence and "retain its identity, everything that was the reason we brought them into the group in the first place," Gietzen said. The idea of keeping the brands under the network distinct meets a demand from customers who want to work with boutique agencies but still have scale, he said.
Beyond Business Travel, meanwhile, stands to expand its business significantly with the network, with a "multi-million-pound travel contract within The Human Network as it is," Gietzen said.
In BTN Europe's most recent Leading TMCs report, Beyond Business Travel ranked as the U.K.'s 41st largest TMC. Gietzen projected the new business would help boost them up to the top 20 on that list. Beyond Business Travel CEO Edel Doherty said it was an opportunity to expand beyond its work in the European and U.K. markets into the Middle East, and "hopefully all of us will go to the U.S. as well."
Gietzen said sustainability and social responsibility is central for The Human Network as well, with a majority of its events accredited to ISO event standards. Some of its recent initiatives have included buying the furniture for most of its events and then working with local housing charities in the event's location to donate them afterward. The network also works to employee long-term unemployed individuals on its projects and then work with them on writing new résumés on the back end of working on those projects, he said.
That focus was part of the reason Beyond Business Travel will fit well within the network, Doherty said. "That was definitely in our strategy, that global reach piece along with sustainability, so it has been a bit of a marriage made in heaven," she said.
BTN has learned that Focus Travel Partnership CEO Steve Banks will leave the company as of Dec. 31 to join The Human Network and head up the newly created travel management division.