New York, NY, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ — PR Newswire announced today the acquisition of Virtual Press Office (VPO), bringing together the leading global providers of tradeshow news distribution solutions and online press office management.

The combined services will enable PR Newswire to offer the industry’s most extensive platform for event marketing and communications. The purchase of VPO further enhances PR Newswire’s portfolio of web engagement technologies and complements the company’s recent acquisition of The Fuel Team, the website software company whose award-winning technology has powered PR Newswire’s online newsroom and investor room tools since 2004.

VPO serves more than 500 conferences and 10,000 customers worldwide, delivering a host of tools and services that allow event marketers to address all facets of tradeshow communications, from building online press kits to direct email marketing to social media outreach and analysis through its recently launched EventBuzz dashboard. Having established VPO in 1996, its co-founders, Peter Brand, chief executive officer, and Tom Cherry, chief operating officer, will join PR Newswire to lead the company’s Global Events team.

“VPO has long been recognized as the leading pure-play provider of event-based news distribution, management and tracking,” stated Ninan Chacko, chief executive officer, PR Newswire. “Incorporating VPO’s extensive relationships and event marketing expertise into PR Newswire’s already-robust tradeshow platform will enable us to deliver the most complete, end-to-end communications solution serving tradeshow organizers, presenters and attendees. In particular, Peter’s and Tom’s leadership and industry savvy will be instrumental as PR Newswire continues to enhance our tradeshow marketing services and leverage event development opportunities on a global scale.”

The integration of VPO’s event-focused tools and technologies with PR Newswire’s Global Events platform will provide event organizers and exhibitors with an unparalleled suite of communications services for maximizing exposure to show attendees, media and consumers. These services include:

   --Exhibitor Information Kits –PR Newswire’s Exhibitor Information Kit platform, which enables companies to build full event microsites complete with multimedia, automatic news updates and RSS capabilities, will be augmented by features available in VPO’s Online Press Kits, including advanced media measurement reports. All kits will gain further exposure on PR Newswire’s EventNewsCenter.com, an online tradeshow portal containing news and exhibitor information kits from events around the world.

   --News Distribution – PR Newswire empowers event organizers and exhibitors with the ability to disseminate news to a broad, global audience as well as to niche markets and media groups. VPO’s vNews service will further supplement PR Newswire’s leading distribution capabilities by enabling customers to execute personalized and highly targeted email campaigns.

   --Social Media – The union of PR Newswire’s Social Media Metrics and VPO’s recently launched EventBuzz will provide companies and event planners with the most wide-reaching and detailed tool for tracking, analyzing and acting upon tradeshow social media buzz.

   --Sales Lead Communications – Generating business remains a core objective of most companies’ tradeshow strategies. VPO’s vLeads enables PR Newswire’s Global Events team to offer an inclusive sales email campaign service, from building the sales email campaign, to distributing the campaign to the exhibitors’ target audience, to delivering real-time leads directly to its sales team.

   --Multimedia Production & Distribution – PR Newswire, through its multimedia company, MultiVu, offers event organizers and exhibitors a full array of multimedia tools and services, including video production, webcasting, multimedia news release development and dissemination, and direct photo distribution to media and consumers as well as “high-traffic” postings on the largest digital display in the world in New York City’s Times Square and on a digital board on the Las Vegas strip

“Event marketing has changed dramatically over the past several years as online technologies, such as electronic news distribution, multimedia and now social media, have become integral to all phases of the tradeshow communications spectrum,” noted Peter Brand, co-founder and CEO of Virtual Press Office. “The union of VPO with PR Newswire’s Global Events division provides an unmatched communications platform which will enable event organizers and exhibitors the world-over to truly maximize their tradeshow endeavors, whether the objective is to launch a product, generate sales leads or raise brand awareness.”