Mark Shashoua is reinventing the business display for a brand new generation of human connection

When Shashoua rejoined what used to be then ITE Group in 2017 – a trade in the beginning based through his father – it used to be working just about 300 business displays a 12 months, maximum of them in rising markets. The drawback? Many have been too small, too fragmented and too exhausting to justify for contemporary entrepreneurs hard clearer ROI. “The average show now is more than 10 times the size of the old ones,” Shashoua says. “Last year, our revenue was around $320m. We’re significantly larger than before.” This is in spite of doing simplest 25 displays versus 300! But scale, he stresses, isn’t the actual tale. The giant shift has been strategic.

“Events had hit a roadblock. It used to be that marketers would just throw chips on the roulette wheel and hope for a return. But post-financial crisis, that stopped working. And especially post-Covid, companies are putting more money into fewer, bigger, better events.”

Before returning to guide the trade, Shashoua had constructed a monitor document of turning round occasions corporations somewhere else. He held senior roles at Emap, serving to to refocus its occasions department ahead of it turned into a part of Ascential, and performed a job in reshaping Cannes Lions into an international emblem beneath CEO Duncan Painter. “What we did at Emap and Cannes Lions was transformational,” he says. “We moved from being a collection of exhibitions to running market-leading, content-driven events that genuinely shaped industries.” That enjoy would later grow to be the blueprint for what he would do at Hyve.

From frontier markets to flagship manufacturers

Shashoua grew up within the business display trade. “I went to my first show when I was eight years old. There aren’t many places where you can feel the power of people meeting quite like a trade show. I got the bug early.”

His father constructed the unique trade first within the Middle East, then China within the early 1980s, then Eastern Europe after the autumn of the Soviet Union. The challenge again then used to be geopolitical: serving to world companies input new markets via exhibitions. But by the point Shashoua returned, that style had run its direction.

It had grow to be a quantity sport: loads of small displays unfold throughout dozens of nations. Since 2017, Hyve has slashed its portfolio. “It’s not about the number of shows any more,” he says. “It’s about running the flagship event in a sector – and doing it better than anyone else.”

Shoptalk: the turning level

That reconsider resulted in the purchase of Shoptalk and Groceryshop in 2019 for $145m – a pivotal second. “What the original founders of Money 2020 did was the first time I’d seen a show that really worked like a media brand,” he says. “Shoptalk took that model even further – content-led, editor-driven, focused on big voices shaping the future of their sector.”

As lined in The Drum’s Shoptalk 2025 function, the display has advanced into greater than only a tech expo. It’s a platform – section business display, section editorial convention, section matchmaking engine – with over 30,000 pre-arranged conferences now happening throughout its editions. “That kind of precision is where this industry is going,” says Shashoua. “Our biggest innovation is making human connection easier, more intentional.”

The retail media style for occasions

Hyve’s fashionable technique intently mirrors the common sense of retail media – some extent no longer misplaced on Shashoua. “We’re not just selling floor space any more,” he says. “We’re building curated, closed-loop environments. We know who the attendees are. We know what they’re looking for. And we help our partners connect with them in meaningful ways.”

Like a store the use of first-party information to pressure focused promoting, Hyve leverages the target audience insights throughout its tournament portfolio to create constant reports for companions akin to Microsoft, Google and Amazon – corporations that seem throughout a couple of verticals from retail to fintech to advertising and marketing. “They participate in all our shows. And that cross-pollination lets them plan smarter, invest deeper and reach the right people in different ecosystems.”

Going personal to suppose long-term

None of this variation would’ve been conceivable, he says, with out Hyve going personal. “If you’re not a £2bn business in the UK, being public is hard. You can’t access capital. You can’t move fast.”

In 2023, Hyve delisted from the London Stock Exchange with backing from two primary shareholders – a transfer that gave it the runway to concentrate on long-term technique fairly than quarterly income. “We’re not consolidators. We’re not here to buy 50 events just to say we’ve got presence. We go deep, not wide.”

What’s subsequent for Possible?

Possible is now a core a part of Hyve’s portfolio, along Shoptalk, Groceryshop, Hlth and Fintech Meetup. And whilst Shashoua received’t ascertain particular growth plans but, he sees monumental possible. “I think this has enormous potential and I also think it has enormous potential internationally. So we’ll be looking at where we can replicate this in different markets.”

That cautious phraseology is planned. “We only expand when we’re sure we can protect what made the event valuable in the first place. You can’t just copy and paste.”

Fixing the awkward bits

At the center of Hyve’s considering is an easy trust: that B2B occasions nonetheless topic, however they wish to paintings tougher for everybody concerned. “We’ve spent decades getting people into a room and hoping they meet the right person. We’re engineering touchpoints so nobody’s stuck awkwardly talking to someone irrelevant for 20 minutes.”

Whether it’s via double opt-in matchmaking, hosted conferences or structured desk talks, Hyve is attempting to do away with the guesswork and social friction from occasions. “The more AI we get, the more important human connection becomes. We’re just helping it happen – without the awkward bits.”

For him, that’s the challenge: much less roulette, extra effects.