Emerald Acquires EDspaces

Emerald has acquired EDspaces, the education industry’s leading conference and exhibit marketplace focused on the future of learning environments. A product of the Education Market Association (EDmarket), EDspaces explores how the convergence of technology, space, and pedagogy serves to impact learning and student outcomes in educational settings. “EDspaces is a great addition to our portfolio,” says Gannon Brousseau, executive vice president of the Design Group for Emerald. “EDspaces provides significant synergistic opportunities with our current brands, and strategic cross-brand initiatives to benefit the architecture, interior design, manufacturer, and end-user communities.” EDspaces joins the Design Group at Emerald, leveraging Emerald’s significant resources, expertise, and network to serve—and ultimately grow and innovate—a key sector of commercial design. The EDmarket team will remain integral to content development, and will work closely with Emerald’s EDspaces team. As the premier event addressing design of learning environments at all levels—pre-K to higher education—EDspaces will continue its mission to deliver best-of-breed conference programming and networking along with a leading-edge product and service marketplace. “It is increasingly clear that effective design of education spaces will be more important than ever post-COVID19, and it is gratifying and exciting to play a role in developing next-generation solutions for the industry,” explains Stacy Shoemaker Rauen, senior vice president of the Design Group for Emerald. “The show goes beyond trends to focus on creativity and innovation to help designers and schools create improved learning environments and winning outcomes.” “It’s an immersive approach to conference learning blended with a lively tradeshow floor to kickstart new ideas and new ways of thinking about design,” adds Kevin Gaffney, vice president and group show director for Emerald. With conference sessions that take place in custom-designed, future-forward classrooms imagined by leading design and architecture firms, and pavilions on the show floor that will showcase the latest products in technology and sustainability, EDspaces offers an inspiring living laboratory of what is possible in well-designed learning environments. Joe Tucker, show director; Loraine D. Coleman, conference manager; and Scott Beyer, account manager, have joined Emerald fulltime, while Adrienne Dayton, vice president of communications and education, will split her time between the show and EDmarket. Remaining EDmarket staff members will support EDmarket board of directors’ efforts to enhance membership value, as well as promote growth and opportunities for the education market. “Moving forward, EDmarket will be able to continue its 105-year history as a key resource and connector to the education marketplace,” says Jim McGarry, EDmarket president and CEO. “We are excited to work with the Emerald team to deliver the high-quality content the industry has come to expect.”