Pros
Interesting industry Travel Ability to learn Some really good teams to work with like the old Black Hat, Former horizontals team in Tech etc. As much as teams are mostly lead by white men and an old boys club, only units worth considering are Informa Markets or Connect. avoid the new Festivals unit at all costs.
Kontras
Overworked. This company will work you to the bone. Leadership lives in an ivory tower. They will travel business class but demand you fly economy for 24 hour plus travel journeys when they make over 50% margins on deals. Avoid the Festivals unit as it is filled with leadership of the old Ascentials with literally no hires or opportunities to anybody else. Decisions are made based on how Lions and Money 2020 worked but that company was acquired so their ways of working were clearly not great. The old Ascentials teams have 60-100 people in sales and 100 plus operations teams while the Informa brands that got thrown in there have to survive on a third of that. A new head/President appointed to the wonderful brand of Black Hat has created such a toxic environment that leaders and team members are dropping like flies and moving on. Yet, Festivals leadership is stuck in ways that are archaic and will run the unit into the ground. Avoid sales or marketing roles in this unit especially in management. Plans are awful for managers, growth negligible and opportunities non-existent.