GLM has purchased the events group of Vertical Web Media.
The transaction includes Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE), an e-commerce event, and two allied events: Internet Retailer Mobile Marketing & Commerce Forum (MMCF) and Internet Retailer Web Design and Usability Conference (IRWD). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Charles McCurdy, GLM’s chairman and CEO, said, “Because Internet retailing and e-commerce are such important growth topics for the retailers and suppliers who attend GLM’s existing shows, this is a natural extension of GLM’s reach and impact within the supplier and retailer community.”
The existing IRCE sales, marketing and operations team will remain with the events group and will operate as an independent GLM division. Launched in 2005, IRCE features about 600 e-commerce vendors and 100 conference sessions over a four-day period, and draws nearly 9,000 e-retailing and e-commerce executives. MMCF, which debuted in 2010, features 40 exhibits and more than 25 conference sessions, and attracts representatives from retail chains, web-only merchants, catalogues, branded manufacturers and e-commerce vendors. IRWD, which draws e-commerce executives, web designers and developers, and marketers from web-only merchants and the e-commerce operations of retail chains, launched in 2008.