ITA Group, the Des Moines, Iowa–based event and incentive company, has acquired two European agencies, C2 Events, based in West Yorkshire, England, and Daymakers in the Netherlands, adding roughly 100 event professionals to its 1,200-person global workforce. The move extends ITA Group’s offices in the U.S., Australia, the UK, and the Netherlands, alongside strategic partnerships in Belgium and Singapore.
C2 Events, an employee-owned agency specializing in healthcare, pharmaceutical, and biotech events for more than 20 years, strengthens ITA Group’s European pharmaceutical events team.
Daymakers, formed in 2023 through the merger of D&B Eventmarketing and FX Agency, focuses on immersive, digitally integrated experiences.
“These acquisitions help us better serve our global clients with immediate, localized support throughout Europe while delivering world-class event solutions across key industries,” said Brent Vander Waal, CEO of ITA Group.
ITA’s Global Focus
“These acquisitions represent a natural evolution in our growth strategy and our commitment to serving clients wherever they do business,” said Sarah Haines, president of event solutions at ITA Group. “With over 400 team members now dedicated to event solutions across multiple continents, we can inspire and motivate audiences in Europe and around the world through exceptional, locally managed experiences.”
The deals build on ITA Group’s European expansion over the past three years, following acquisitions of London-based NKD in 2022, HTK in Ipswich in 2023, and Sydney-based Performance Incentives in 2024.
Flurry of Year-End M&A Activity
The acquisitions come amid a flurry of year-end M&A activity in the events sector. In a single 24-hour span at the beginning of December, five major deals were announced, reflecting renewed confidence in the industry.
Deals in that period included Encore’s acquisition of global brand experience company FIRST, the Eventbrite-Bending Spoons transaction easing pressure on the ticketing platform, the Unbridled-OrangeDoor merger forming a 234-person transatlantic agency, Easyfairs’ first North American purchase of the Energy Projects Conference & Expo, and GES’s experiential agency Spiro acquiring London-based 2Heads.
Doug Emslie, chairman of Cuil Bay Capital, said the earlier pause in M&A activity is reversing and expects 2026 to bring “even bigger” deals fueled by increased private equity investment. “A lot of things went on pause this year due to uncertainty, some things have not happened,” he said. “Confidence in the industry is coming through.”
