The Expede Group has completed its acquisition of the UK’s largest student expo organisation, the Freshers Festival Group. Freshers Festival runs Scotland’s most engaging and interactive student event, bringing together hundreds of global food and drink brands, famous bars and clubs and the biggest retail providers such as Just Eat and IKEA. In partnership with YADA Events (another Expede company), 2018-2020 will see Freshers Festival expand its operations to cities across the UK, including London, Manchester, Birmingham and more.

All Freshers Festivals will be powered by YADA, the hotly anticipated digital events platform. YADA focuses on social and emotional engagement, allowing event attendees to interact and share their perspective before, during and after the event. The collaborative platform will offer Freshers Festival a one-stop digital solution covering everything from their ticketing and promotion through to data capture and post-event marketing.

Expede’s acquisition of the Group follows the recent launch of the YADA Campus Early Adopter Programme which takes the YADA platform into the Higher Education sector. Users of YADA and YADA Campus can take advantage of offers and other benefits from the Group’s commercial partners extending their reach beyond the fresher’s festival.

Graeme Barratt, Managing Director & Founder of Freshers Festival Group:

“By joining the Expede Group, the synergy between our companies provides a springboard for the Freshers Festival to not only become a nationwide offering but importantly instantaneously brings together our attendees and brands through the Group’s digital platforms – with this strategic acquisition, one plus one really does make three and I can’t wait to get started!”

Mehram Sumray-Roots Product Director & Co-Founder of YADA Events:

We’re so excited that The Freshers Festival Group has joined the Expede family. We loved working with Graeme and the team over the last few years and we cannot wait to help bring their events to life across the UK.’’

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.