Clarion Events purchases three major arms exhibitions from Reed Elsevier

On the 29th of May Clarion Events announced the acquisition of Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi), Latin American Aerospace and Defence Exhibition (LAAD) and ITEC.

• DSEi - The largest arms fair in the world takes place in London every two years. The previous owners of DSEi and the other two exhibitions, Reed Elsevier,which is a major publisher of scientific publications, had to sell DSEi after a high profile campaign against it. The campaign included the pressure from academics saying that it was not possible that Reed as a publisher was also involved in the arms industry. The campaign over the years involved also strong pressure from nonviolent activists, carrying direct actions disrupting the fair.
• LAAD - is the most important trade show for the defence industry in Latin America . It takes place every two years bringing together Brazilian and international companies that specialise in supplying equipment and services to all three major branches of the Armed Forces, special forces and security services, as well as consultants and government agencies. In the 12 years since its first edition, LAAD has played a key role for the arms trade in the region enabling participants to network and conduct business. Key military decision-makers, who are Official Delegates from a wide range of countries are able to engage in long-term business ventures.
• ITEC - The only conference and exhibition outside the USA, dedicated to defence training and simulation. ITEC delivers training and simulation to senior officials and procurement officers from the international military and defence industry, showcasing products and services from training and simulation industry. The 2008 edition took place in Stockholm between the 10 – 12 of June.

Clarion Events is owned by Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), which makes Clarion Events the largest independent event organiser in the UK. VSS, present itself as a private equity firm specialising in the media, information and education industries. Clarion Events organises more than 80 exhibitions in the UK and in the rest of the world, some of them are:

• The Baby Show in the UK – how paradoxical baby show and arms fair in their same portfolio.
• The European Briefing in Amsterdam.
• Scotland's Fair Trade Autumn

Just to name three and to show the range of areas they cover.

The acquisition of these three arms exhibitions by Clarion Events brings us a new opportunity to escalate the campaigns against arms trade. Clarion Events has many events for the general public, events that should be the target of campaigns to expose the connection between Clarion Events and the arms trade and demand the immediately withdrawal from all arms trade business.

For more information:

http://www.clarionevents.com/