Partnerships| Exhibition World 30| April 2011| What makes a good international partnership?They can be fruitful, ensuring the whole is worthmore than the sum of the parts. They can alsobe a nightmare; easy to get into and awful to get out of. Verydifferent to get out of them.UBM Live, a division of London-listed company UnitedBusiness Media, counts for a third of UBM group profits,achieved through live event platforms including exhibitions,conferences and awards. The company has manysuccessful businesses around the world, and generallyspeaking they've been built on the acquisition andpartnership principle.UBM Live group director Simon Parker is responsible forpushing UBM's protection and management events aroundthe globe. He recently worked on a partnership withMontgomery to launch the commercial security show IFSECin Lagos, Nigeria, a move that followed a time-consumingand costly IFSEC launch without a local partner in India.Parker says the contrast between the Indian and Nigerianlaunches showed him that when crossing into new territory,bring a partner."Clearly, the UK and US are very mature markets" saysParker. "What we've deliberately done is reposition andrebalance the portfolio in the emerging markets. Amongother places we now have an incredibly successfulbusiness in China, and the same situation in Brazil, wherewe're seeing 25-30 per cent top-line growth. And in a fouryear period we are now in profit in India."THE MAGAZINE FOR THE GLOBAL EXHIBITION COMMUNITY WWW.EXHIBITION-WORLD.NETHand in hand UBM's method for geo-cloning,a term used for the adaptation ofan exhibition or event into newterritories, is to look at "attractivegeography" and then establishan entry strategy. Its preferredmodus operandi is to identifythe key player in each regionand work closely with them toassess whether there is an opportunity there, and whetheror not to proceed via a straightforward joint-venture, or morelikely by buying a percentage of the business. "There are not many brands that have a truly globalresonance," says Parker. "Some of our events that do arethe pharmaceutical ingredients show CPhi, FoodIngredients and Health Ingredients and our security showIFSEC."The latter of these brands is the one UBM launched inNigeria in February, as part of a sub-Saharan joint venturewith Montgomery. Montgomery had run its Securex brand inSouth Africa for around 15 years before UBM came in for the50 per cent joint venture UBM Mongomery in 2007,eventually rebranding the event IFSEC South Africa lastSeptember. The Nigeria launch, IFSEC West Africa, followedthis year with the emergence of a world class venue inNigeria's financial and economic capital Lagos.The operation perfectly demonstrated the value ofworking with a local partner, according to Parker. "It'sSimon Parker discusses the partnership models UBM is using to move its brandsinternationally, and sows a few seeds on the way we can work better with one anotherto take up opportunities across the globe.Simon Parker