Almost exactly one year ago I attended the Dagens Industri's M&A conference in Stockholm. Our CEO Ilkka Töyrylä had encouraged me to attend, as the event is one the most relevant M&A gatherings in the Nordics, and I had just recently inherited Midagon's M&A service area responsibilities from him.
After the conference, we started talking seriously about starting a similar - maybe smaller at first, but of at least equal quality - event in Helsinki. Some of the work we had done at our Finnish clients were well on par with the case studies presented in Stockholm. We wanted to offer our clients similar insights of best practices and peer-to-peer information sharing, especially in the often-neglected area of M&A integration - but without having to travel to Sweden.
Midagon's core competencies in M&A services lie especially in ICT integration and driven and effective program management. Very few acquirers currently fully appreciate that most of the cost, effort and schedule pressure in M&A integration comes from ICT integration. At the same time, key deal synergies are increasingly enabled by ICT integration. And finally, one of the most critical factors for M&A integration success is effective program management.
As we investigated different options to organize such an event, we found our own synergies with the prominent law firm Hannes Snellman. They have a very similar perspective and similar values for M&A execution as Midagon, although they mostly work in the early stages of M&As and as lawyers have different skills compared to Midagon's typical technical and business backgrounds.
The event was now on to a strong start, but the true value to the participants would come from the practical experiences on challenging M&A integrations. We were very excited when some of our best clients kindly agreed to present their cases. We also wanted to contract and complement the practical perspectives with the latest scientific research. We felt we had the full package when professor Angwin from Nottingham University Business School agreed to join us as the keynote speaker.
The original plan was to have the event in May 2020, but the early months of this year were not the best timing for a physical gathering, and we had to reschedule. A new date was set for the 19th of November. As the year progressed, we explored hybrid and online event options. We had fantastic content ready to be shared with our clients, and it felt quite impossible to give up at this point.
The event that we are inviting you to experience on the 19th of November will not be anything like we originally visioned, with none of the pre-covid perks of nice catering and spontaneous meetings with top-of-the-field experts. The speakers and the presentations are, however, exactly as interesting and relevant - maybe even more so, as this year has forced all of us to find new innovative solutions to the challenges in M&A. I believe our humble start will set the tradition for the first and best M&A event in Finland for years to come.
Please contact us for your invitation and see the agenda and more information here! The event will be held partly in Finnish and partly in English.
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