Raccoon Media Group, the organisers of PATS and BETA International. has announced a new joint venture with Edition Media, bringing Edition Dog Live into its growing animal health portfolio and setting out plans to significantly grow the event.
The partnership will combine the established Edition Dog brand and community with Raccoon’s investment and experience in building specialist events.
The two businesses will work together to develop the event’s marketing, content, commercial proposition and visitor experience, with plans to grow its reach across the UK dog market.
Edition Dog Live, which takes place on October 17-18, is the UK’s largest non-competitive consumer dog show, bringing together dog owners, brands and industry experts at NAEC Stoneleigh.
The event features more than 200 exhibitors alongside expert content, live arenas and interactive experiences spanning dog health, wellbeing, nutrition, training and responsible ownership. Welfare sits at the heart of the event, with Stoneleigh’s extensive indoor and outdoor space providing an ideal environment to grow the show while continuing to put the needs and wellbeing of dogs first.
Mike Seaman, group chief executive of Raccoon Media Group, said: “Edition Dog Live is exactly the kind of event we want to work with. It has a strong brand, an incredibly engaged community and huge potential.
“We’ve seen through PATS and BETA International what can happen when you take established, much-loved events and put serious investment, resource and ambition behind them. We’ve respected the heritage of those brands while giving them what they need to grow, and the response from their industries has been exceptional.”
Mr Seaman continued: “We no longer think about markets simply as B2B or B2C. We think business to customer. Our job is to understand all of the communities within a market and build events that genuinely serve them.
Our ambition is to build an animal health ecosystem, with complementary specialist events working together around a shared timeline. Edition Dog Live is an important part of that strategy and, alongside PATS and BETA International, takes us another step towards Animal Health Week and a much bigger proposition for the industry.”
Jennifer Dow from Edition Media, added: “Edition Dog Live has always been built around the health, wellbeing and welfare of dogs, and that won’t change as we grow. Stoneleigh gives us a fantastic home for the event, with the space and flexibility to create a brilliant experience for visitors while making sure dogs have room to step away from the busy show environment when they need to.
“Partnering with Raccoon gives us the investment, expertise and resource to take Edition Dog Live to the next level without losing what has made it special. They understand specialist communities and they share our ambition for what this event can become. We’re incredibly excited about the next chapter.”
