Marketplace Events Acquires Casa Latina Home Expo

Marketplace Events, North America’s largest home show producer, today announced its acquisition of the bilingual Casa Latina Home Expos from the owners of Casa Latina, the first bilingual, multi-platform home and lifestyle brand designed specifically for the needs, tastes and values of the U.S. Hispanic market.

Under the Marketplace Events umbrella, the Casa Latina Home Expo (www.casalatinahomeexpo.com), scheduled for November 15, 2014 in New York City, will expand to two new markets in 2015. They are Miami, which will run May 29-31, 2015 at the Miami Airport Convention Center (MACC), and Orlando, which will run September 18-20, 2015 at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee. As the company gains multicultural market understanding, it foresees swift expansion into other major Hispanic markets in the U.S. and Canada with early emphasis on Texas, California and select northern metro markets, in addition to New York and Florida.

“We have been exploring the concept of launching home shows for the Hispanic market for nearly a decade,” said Marketplace Events CEO Tom Baugh. “After meeting with Casa Latina founders and cousins Nora Diaz-Bretherton and Marlene Pratt, we knew that producing these shows alongside these dynamic women was the opportunity we’d been looking for,” he said. “They are entrenched in their community; they have a passion for their brand and a strong work ethic. We are enthusiastic about working together to build the Casa Latina brand.”

Diaz-Bretherton and Pratt will continue to provide leadership direction for the Expos in partnership with Marketplace Events and with the full support of the company’s infrastructure. “We look forward to the financial support and sales expertise that Marketplace Events brings to our partnership,” said Diaz-Bretherton. “Their sales, marketing best practices and management depth will allow us to grow Casa Latina into the home and lifestyle brand that Marlene and I have envisioned.” The founders will continue to operate the other businesses that comprise the Casa Latina brand, including development of multi-media content for television, digital and print, serving as spokespersons and providing consulting services for brands looking to target Hispanic consumers.

The inaugural 2013 Casa Latina Home Expo in New York City featured some of the country’s most popular Latina home and garden celebrities and bloggers and partnerships with major sponsors that included Chase, Lowe’s, Empire BlueCross Blue Shield, Moen, Ford and Got Milk?, among others. The event was covered by HGTV, Univision, Vme-TV, NY 1, WCBS, Examiner.com, This Old House and Hombre Magazine. With the tagline “Improve Your Home. Improve Your Life.”, the Casa Latina Home Expos expand on the traditional home show model that focuses on renovation, remodeling and home design to also encompass financial literacy, health and nutrition, and parenting and lifestyle components. The Expos also include a full schedule of live entertainment, food and kids’ activities to create a festival atmosphere. These events require that all exhibitors and presenters be bilingual.

For more information or to participate in the 2014-2015 Casa Latina Home Expos, contact Group Manager Cristian Moore at 407.363.7653 ext. 15 or crisitianm@marketplaceevents.com.

Marketplace Events (www.marketplaceevents.com)

creates vibrant expositions connecting enthusiasts with experts, products and services in dynamic face-to-face environments.

From 14 offices, the 110-person staff produces 43 annual events including: 27 consumer general market home shows in the U.S.; 11 in Canada; three Casa Latina Home Expos for the Hispanic market; one Holiday Boutique in Kansas City; and the country’s premier trade and consumer show for the motorcycle industry, the American International Motorcycle Expo (AIMExpo).

The Marketplace Events portfolio attracts 15,000 exhibitors, 1.5 million attendees and another 1.7 million unique web visitors annually.