From Idea to Exit: Joshua Bull on Building and Selling EPC
In December 2025, Easyfairs — the global leader in event organisation — made its first North American acquisition, purchasing EPC (Energy Projects Conference & Expo), the world's largest energy projects event.
What started as a conference in a hotel had grown in just four years into a tradeshow attracting 6000 visitors and over 400 exhibitors and sponsors. We sat down with EPC founder Joshua Bull to hear the story behind the business — from the spark of an idea to a successful exit.
What inspired you to launch your event?
I had identified an opportunity in the US energy industry following the Russia/Ukraine war, which drove huge investment in new LNG Export capacity to replace Russian supplies.
I have over 11 years of experience launching events focused on the energy industry and major infrastructure projects. I'd actually had my eye on this particular event for six years, researching it on and off, but it always felt too premature. By 2023, conversations with people in the industry convinced me the time had finally come. So I launched it.
How did you know it was the right moment to take the plunge and start up on your own?
I had taken 3 years off working following the sale of a previous company I was a part of.
After using the time to get married, have two children and move house, it was the right time for a new challenge.
What 2-3 decisions in the early years made the biggest difference to the outcome?
The first was hiring great people. I've been exceptionally fortunate with those who have joined me along the way. A few months after launch, I brought in Andrew York to manage exhibition and sponsorship sales — and the exhibition has been the main growth engine of the business, accounting for nearly 60% of total revenue this year.
Having a great salesperson freed me to focus on my strengths: developing a top-quality product and marketing funnel that fed him consistent, quality leads to convert.
The second was focusing on scale. The conference industry has very low barriers to entry, making it easy for competitors to pile into a lucrative market and drive diminishing returns for everyone. The data centre event landscape right now, with a new launch almost every week, is a huge testament to this. The real question is how you create meaningful barriers to entry and build a market-leading event that is resistant to competition. For me, the answer was scale.
What metrics ended up mattering more than you'd expected?
When it came to the sale, one metric mattered immensely: our rebooking rate — specifically the number of companies who rebooked for the following year's event onsite at the show, and the number of repeat exhibitors and sponsors overall.
Buyers are particularly interested in the repeat nature of your business, so focusing on this early will set you up for success. There are two key ways I'd recommend event owners do that:
Quality of the customer's experience: Companies will rebook if they feel they get clear ROI from an event. Of course, customer service, quality of the food etc. are all important, but the most important element is whether they meet customers at your event.
An onsite rebooking plan: We were constrained during our first two years of the event by the fact that we only had one salesperson, which made a well-executed onsite rebooking plan difficult. In our third year, though, we hired a professional rebooking team (Benchmark) who came onsite and ran a full-scale rebook. This was a huge success. We walked away from the event with 90% of that year's exhibition revenue already contracted for the following year.
What was the hardest part of launching your event that no one talks about? And what was the hardest part of selling it?
The hardest part of the launch was finding great suppliers. Many wouldn't take our business because we were too small, and securing venues was particularly difficult as we couldn't commit to the room blocks required.
Quality was also an issue with some suppliers not meeting our standards. It's taken a few years to build a supplier base we can truly trust.
The hardest part of selling was the analysis and number crunching. Buyers rightly demand a huge level of detail and forecasting to make a capital allocation decision — but like many small business founders, I was more accustomed to back-of-a-napkin thinking than detailed spreadsheets and charts.
Equally, what was the most rewarding part of launching your event? And the most rewarding part of selling it?
I enjoy the game of starting businesses, and the most rewarding part is always those first one to two years building something from nothing.
Working in a small, focused team with no preconceptions — the freedom to try ideas, see what works and what doesn't, and learn as you go — is a really fulfilling process.
The most rewarding part of selling was having incredibly experienced event professionals take an in-depth look at the business. The feedback, questions, probing, criticism and praise were a hugely valuable experience for any business owner. Even if we hadn't ended up selling, the process materially improved the quality of our business and the way we operate.
What might have helped or sped up the process from launch to exit for you?
We sold about three and a half years after launching, so I wouldn't have wanted to exit any sooner.
But it would have been valuable to have had earlier advice — whether from companies that sell events to acquirers, or founders who've been through the process — on how to prepare your business for a sale. Understanding the importance of onsite rebooking, for example, and the other metrics that underpin the value of an events business
For anyone launching an event now, what mistakes did you make that you wouldn't make again?
If you run an international event but your company is registered in the UK, get tax advice early on any relevant filing obligations or local rules. It's rarely a concern day-to-day as a small business owner, but it will come up during a formal sales process.
How do you think an event owner might benefit from Manta Media Capital?
Having access to a lineup of extremely experienced event professionals who have seen both sides of a sales process would be invaluable for any founder looking to unlock maximum value from their business.
What next?
I'm still working through an earnout but, after that, I plan to take some time to focus on my family and other business interests. I've always got ideas for events rattling around, so if the right opportunity comes along — who knows, I could be back here again.
The board of seasoned events professionals at Manta Media Capital acts as an extension of your team, going beyond pure capital investment and injecting hard-earned industry knowledge into your business, too. Take just two minutes to initiate the funding application process with Manta now.