Our History

December: The concept of CloserStill was formed at a coffee bar in Paddington, London. Just weeks into the financial crash, the foundation of CloserStill was to . CloserStill was named by Center after two Joy Division albums.

CloserStill had no office or address but business commenced. We acquired majority stake in Pioneer - a company based on a pig farm in Warwickshire that ran the Dentistry Show and Pharmacy Show. Pioneer turned over £161,000 a year. CloserStill launched its first new event: London Vet Show.  

CloserStill made its first foray into Business Technologies with the acquisition of Learning Technologies (which had run since 1999). CloserStill also won its very first industry award: The AEO Excellence Award for Best Trade Show Launch for the London Vet Show. 

CloserStill acquired its first IT event - Cloud Expo Europe. This event has since evolved into a global powerhouse event and publishing brand: Tech Show. CloserStill runs Tech Shows in five countries each of which has up to seven co-located events. 

2012 saw the first refinancing of CloserStill. Phoenix Private Equity became the major shareholder. CloserStill also launched one of our most decorated trade shows: Clinical Pharmacy Congress. 

Throughout these years, CloserStill started to expand into Europe with events like Pharmagora (France) and Cloud Expo Frankfurt (Germany), as well as add to the trophy cabinet. At the Exhibition News Awards in 2014, CloserStill won seven of the ten categories. 

In 2015, Inflexion acquired a 47% share in CloserStill which was valued at £115 million.  

Both the Healthcare and Technology portfolios rapidly grew with the launch of events in Europe, Asia and for the first time - the United States (New York Vet). 

The international growth was reflected in honours such as the Financial Times' International Track and the Sunday Times Fastest Growing Companies. 

With further rapid growth in eight new cities, accolades such as the first exhibition company to be listed "Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For" and an enterprise value of £337 million, it's no surprise that Providence Private Equity took a majority stake in the business (just four days before Christmas in 2018). 

Throughout 2019, CloserStill continued to rapidly expand across all areas of business,  more awards were added to the trophy cabinet and more locations were added to a busy event calendar. However the workforce had to quickly adjust and overcome the challenges thrown its way by the Covid-19 pandemic which had a huge effect on the events industry. 

So far in 2023, CloserStill has acquired four new businesses which has expanded its presence globally and has grew the workforce reach over 600. With the acquisition of UKI Media in August 2023, CloserStill streamlined its focused areas of business into Business Technologies, Healthcare and Future Transport & Infrastructure.