The Expo Group Acquires Experiential Agency toddstreet to Build Unified Platform

When private equity consolidates the events industry, the standard playbook is to buy regional competitors to build geographic scale and acquire warehouse space. New State Capital Partners’ latest acquisition for its portfolio company, The Expo Group, takes a decidedly different route: buying specialized capabilities rather than square footage. On September 23, 2026, The Expo Group officially acquired toddstreet, a 38-year-old New York-based creative experiential agency founded in 1988, for an undisclosed sum. The move signals a strategic pivot from purely physical event execution toward a more comprehensive, content-driven service model that aims to capture a larger share of corporate marketing budgets before the physical build even begins.[1][2][4]

The transaction effectively merges The Expo Group’s traditional strength in trade show logistics—where it manages everything from 50-person executive offsites to sprawling 5,000-person annual conferences—with toddstreet’s specialized focus on strategic communications, learning and development, and content design. While The Expo Group has historically functioned as the architect of the physical space, toddstreet has operated as the architect of the messaging delivered within it. Chris Cavanaugh, The Expo Group’s corporate president, will lead the complex integration of the two firms, combining their respective workforces to service a unified platform that promises end-to-end event management without the need for third-party creative contractors.[1][2][4]

The strategic rationale for the merger hinges on the rapidly changing nature of corporate marketing budgets in a post-pandemic, highly digitized economy. As digital automation and artificial intelligence increasingly commoditize routine customer touchpoints, premium brands are reallocating significant spend toward high-stakes, in-person experiences that cannot be easily replicated by software. "As more businesses automate customer touchpoints, the brands that win are the ones that create unforgettable, in-person experiences," said Randy Pekowski, CEO of The Expo Group. By acquiring a creative agency, The Expo Group positions itself to capitalize on this shift, offering clients a way to foster direct human connection and counter the growing digital fatigue among B2B buyers.[1]

For New State Capital Partners, a private equity firm that has completed more than 50 investments to date, the deal represents a calculated shift from horizontal operational expansion to vertical integration within the marketing services sector. Rather than simply buying another logistics provider to increase market share, the firm is attempting to build a comprehensive ecosystem that services the entire lifecycle of a corporate event. Adam McDowell, a principal at the firm, stated that "toddstreet is a natural strategic fit that expands the platform's capabilities while preserving the entrepreneurial cultures that have made both businesses successful." The financial backing of New State ensures the combined entity has the capital required to scale these new integrated services nationally.[1][2]

The target agency, toddstreet, brings a highly specific and lucrative client base that is notoriously difficult for generalist event firms to penetrate: healthcare, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and financial technology. These sectors require strict regulatory compliance alongside creative execution, demanding specialized knowledge of industry rules regarding what can and cannot be said or displayed at a corporate gathering. By bringing toddstreet into the fold, The Expo Group immediately gains a foothold in these high-margin industries, bypassing the years of relationship-building and compliance training that would typically be required to win contracts from major pharmaceutical or financial institutions organically.[1][2]

"We now have a bigger stage, more resources, and greater momentum behind the work our teams love to do," said Todd Street, the agency's founder and CEO, indicating that the merger provides his estimated 51-to-200-person team with the national reach and production scale necessary to execute significantly larger campaigns. Operating under a proprietary "Audience Obsessed" methodology, the agency has historically focused on product launches, skill-building workshops, and interactive sales tools that require deep, data-driven audience segmentation. The acquisition allows toddstreet's creative directors to design ambitious physical experiences with the assurance that The Expo Group's logistics infrastructure can flawlessly execute the build-out on a national scale.[1][5][6]

The consolidation reflects a broader, accelerating trend in the B2B media and information services sector, where corporate clients increasingly demand a single point of accountability for the entire event lifecycle. Historically, a corporation might hire one specialized creative agency for messaging and branding, and a completely separate logistics firm for the physical execution and booth construction. This fragmented approach often leads to misaligned objectives, budget overruns, and logistical friction. By bringing both the creative strategy and the physical execution in-house, The Expo Group aims to capture a larger share of its clients' overall marketing budgets while simultaneously reducing the administrative burden on corporate procurement teams.[1][3][4][5]

The immediate practical stake for corporate marketers is a streamlined procurement process and a much tighter alignment between an event's strategic goals and its physical build. However, the success of the merger will now depend entirely on Cavanaugh’s ability to integrate a specialized New York creative boutique into a national trade show operator without losing the specialized expertise and agile culture that made toddstreet an attractive target in the first place. If the integration succeeds, the unified platform could set a new standard for how experiential marketing is delivered, forcing competing logistics firms to either acquire their own creative capabilities or risk being relegated to commodity vendors.[1][2][3]