Item 1A. Risk Factors

Our operations and financial results are subject to known and unknown risks. As a result, past financial performance and historical trends may not be reliable indicators of our future performance.

Completed acquisitions may not perform as anticipated or be integrated as planned. We regularly evaluate and pursue opportunities to acquire businesses that complement, enhance, or expand our current business, or offer growth opportunities. Our acquired businesses might not meet our financial and non-financial expectations or yield anticipated benefits. Our success depends, in part, on our ability to conform controls, policies and procedures, and business cultures; consolidate and streamline operations and infrastructures; identify and eliminate redundant and underperforming operations and assets; manage inefficiencies associated with integration of operations; and retain the acquired business’ key personnel and customers. Moreover, our acquisition activity potentially increases our debt, subjects us to new regulatory requirements, distracts our senior management and employees, and exposes us to unknown liabilities or contingencies that we fail to, or are unable to identify prior to closing. If our acquisitions cause us to make changes to our business strategy or if external conditions adversely affect our business operations, we may also be required to record an impairment charge to goodwill or intangible assets. Any of these risks could materially and adversely affect our business, product and service sales, financial condition, and results of operations.

We depend on our large exhibition event clients to renew their service contracts and on our exclusive right to provide those services. During 2017, no single client accounted for more than 6% of our consolidated revenue. However, GES has a number of large exhibition event organizers and large customer accounts. If any of these large clients do not renew their service contracts, our results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

Moreover, when event organizers hire GES as the official services contractor, they also grant GES an exclusive right to perform electrical, plumbing services, and other services (the “Event Services”) at the exhibition facility. However, exhibition facilities are under increasing financial pressure to in-source Event Services (either by performing the services themselves or by hiring a separate service provider) as a result of conditions generally affecting their industry, such as an increased supply of exhibition space. If a large number of exhibition facilities choose to in-source Event Services, GES will lose the ability to provide Event Services despite being hired as the official services contractor, and our results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

Our business is relationship driven. Our GES business is heavily focused on client relationships, and, specifically, on having close collaboration and interaction with our clients. To be successful, our account team must be able to understand a client’s desires and expectations in order to provide top-quality service. If we lose a key member of our account team, we could also lose customers and our results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

We operate in highly competitive industries. We are engaged in a number of highly competitive industries. Competition in the Live Events industry and the exhibits and experiential environments industries is driven by price and service quality, among other factors. To the extent competitors seek to gain or retain their market presence through aggressive underpricing strategies, we may be required to lower our prices and rates to avoid the loss of related business, thereby adversely affecting our results of operations. In addition, if we are unable to anticipate and respond as effectively as competitors to changing business conditions, including new technologies and business models, we could lose market share to our competitors. Our inability to meet the challenges presented by the competitive environment could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

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Travel industry disruptions, particularly those affecting the hotel and airline industries, could adversely affect our business. Our business de pends largely on the ability and willingness of people, whether exhibitors, exhibition attendees, or others, to travel. Factors adversely affecting the travel industry, and particularly the airline and hotel industries, generally also adversely affect our business and results of operations. Factors that could adversely affect the travel industry include high or rising fuel prices, increased security and passport requirements, weather conditions, airline accidents, and international political instability and hostilities. Any of these factors, or other unexpected events that affect the availability and pricing of air travel and accommodations, could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Transportation disruptions and increases in transportation costs could adversely affect our business and results of operations. GES relies on independent transportation carriers to send materials and exhibits to and from exhibition, warehouse, and customer facilities. If our customers and suppliers are unable to secure the services of those independent transportation carriers at favorable rates, it could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations. In addition, disruption of transportation services due to weather-related problems, labor strikes, lockouts, or other events could adversely affect our ability to supply services to customers and could cause the cancellation of exhibitions, which could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

The seasonality of our business makes us particularly sensitive to adverse events during peak periods. Our GES exhibition and event activity varies significantly because it is based on the frequency and timing of shows, many of which are not held each year and which may shift between quarters. The peak activity for our Pursuit business is during the summer months. Consequently, during 2017, 87% of Pursuit’s revenue was earned in the second and third quarters. If adverse events or conditions occur during these peak periods our results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

Terrorist attacks, natural disasters, or other catastrophic events could negatively affect our business. The occurrence of catastrophic events ranging from natural disasters (such as hurricanes, fires, and floods), health epidemics or pandemics, acts of war or terrorism, accidents involving our travel offerings or experiences, or the prospect of these events could disrupt our business. Such catastrophic events could have a negative impact on GES’ production facilities, preventing us from timely completing exhibit fabrication and other projects for customers. They could also cause a cancellation of exhibitions and other events held in public venues or disrupt the services we provide to our customers at convention centers, exhibition halls, hotels, and other public venues. Such catastrophic events could also have an adverse impact on Pursuit, which is heavily dependent on the ability and willingness of its guests to travel. Pursuit guests tend to delay or postpone vacations if natural conditions differ from those that typically prevail at competing lodges, resorts and attractions, and catastrophic events could impede the guests’ ability to travel, interrupt our business operations, and/or cause damage to our properties. In addition, unfavorable media attention, or negative publicity, in the wake of a catastrophic event could damage our reputation or reduce the demand for our services. If the conditions arising from such events persist or worsen, they could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We are vulnerable to deterioration in general economic conditions. Our business is sensitive to fluctuations in general economic conditions that affect the cost of materials and operating supplies. The success of our GES business largely depends on the number of exhibitions held, the size of exhibitors’ marketing expenditures, and on the strength of particular industries in which exhibitors operate. The number and size of exhibitions generally decrease when the economy weakens. We also suffer from reduced spending for our services because many exhibitors’ marketing budgets are partly discretionary, and are frequently among the first expenditures reduced when economic conditions deteriorate. Consequently, marketing expenditures often are not increased until economic conditions improve. Revenue from our Pursuit operation depends largely on the amount of disposable income that consumers have available for travel and vacations. This amount decreases during periods of weak general economic conditions. Any of these risks could materially and adversely affect our business, product sales, financial condition, and results of operations.

Recent U.S. tax legislation may materially and adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”), enacted in late 2017, makes significant changes to U.S. tax laws and includes numerous provisions that could affect our business. For instance, as a result of lower corporate tax rates, the Tax Act tends to reduce both the value of deferred tax assets and the amount of deferred tax liabilities. It also limits interest rate deductions and the amount of net operating losses that can be used each year and alters the expensing of capital expenditures. Other provisions have tax consequences for our international operations. The Tax Act is unclear in certain respects and will require interpretations and implementing regulations by the Internal Revenue Service, as well as state tax authorities. The Tax Act could also be subject to amendments and technical corrections, any of which could lessen or increase the adverse impacts on our business operations. The accounting treatment of these tax law changes is complex, and some of the changes may affect both current and future periods. Others will primarily affect future periods. As we have discussed elsewhere in this Report on Form 10-K, we believe our analysis and computations of the tax effects of the Tax Act on financial results is substantially, but not entirely, complete. Consistent with guidance from the SEC, our financial statements reflect our estimates of the tax effects of the Tax Act on our business. Although we believe these estimates are reasonable, they are

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provisional and may be adjusted prior to the end of 2018. Any such adjustments could affect our current or future financial statements, or both. We continue to examine the impact of this tax reform legislation, a nd as its overall impact is uncertain, we note that the Tax Act could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

We are subject to currency exchange rate fluctuations. We have operations outside of the U.S. primarily in Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and to a lesser extent, in certain other countries. During 2017, GES International and Pursuit’s international operations accounted for approximately 30% of our consolidated revenue and 58% of our segment operating income. Consequently, a significant portion of our business is exposed to currency exchange rate fluctuations. Our financial results and capital ratios are sensitive to movements in currency exchange rates because a large portion of our assets, liabilities, revenue, and expenses must be translated into U.S. dollars for reporting purposes. The unrealized gains or losses resulting from the currency translation are included as a component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) in our consolidated balance sheets. As a result, significant fluctuations in currency exchange rates could result in material changes to the net equity position we report in our consolidated balance sheets. We do not currently hedge equity risk arising from the translation of non-U.S. denominated assets and liabilities.

Our participation in multi-employer pension plans could substantially increase our pension costs. We sponsor a number of defined benefit plans for our U.S. and Canada-based employees. We are obligated to contribute to multi-employer pension plans under collective-bargaining agreements covering our union-represented employees. We contributed $26.6 million in 2017 and $25.8 million in 2016 to those multi-employer pension plans. These multi-employer plans are managed by third-party boards of trustees. Based upon the information we receive from plan administrators, we believe that several of those multi-employer plans are underfunded. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 requires us to reduce the underfunded status over defined time periods. Moreover, we would be required to make additional payments of our proportionate share of a plan’s unfunded vested liabilities if a plan terminates, or other contributing employers withdraw, due to insolvency or other reasons, or if we voluntarily withdraw from a plan. At this time, we cannot determine with any certainty the amount of additional funding, if any, we could be required to make to those plans. However, significant plan contribution increases, could materially and adversely affect our consolidated financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows. Refer to Note 17 – Pension and Postretirement Benefits of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements (Part II, Item 8 of this 2017 Form 10-K) for further information.

Union-represented labor increases our risk of higher labor costs and work stoppages. A significant portion of our employees are unionized. We have approximately 100 collective-bargaining agreements, and we are required to renegotiate approximately one-third of those each year. If we increase wages or benefits as a result of labor negotiations, either our operating margins will suffer, or we could increase the cost of our services to our customers, which could lead those customers to turn to other vendors with lower prices. Either event could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Additionally, if we are unable to reach an agreement with a union during the collective-bargaining process, the union may strike or carry out other types of work stoppages. If that happens, we might be unable to find substitute workers with the necessary skills to perform many of the services, or we may incur additional costs to do so, both of which could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We are vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks and threats. We regularly collect and process credit, financial, and other personal, sensitive, and confidential information from individuals and entities who attend or participate in events and exhibitions that we produce, or who visit our attractions and other offerings. In addition, our devices, servers, computer systems, and business systems are vulnerable to cybersecurity risk, including cyberattacks, or we may be the target of email scams that attempt to acquire personal information and company assets. Despite our efforts to protect ourselves with insurance, and create security barriers to such threats, including regularly reviewing our systems for vulnerabilities and continually updating our protections, we might not be able to entirely mitigate these risks. Our failure to effectively prevent, detect, and recover from the increasing number and sophistication of information security threats could lead to business interruptions, delays or loss of critical data, misuse, modification, or destruction of information, including trade secrets and confidential business information, reputational damage, and third-party claims, any of which could adversely and materially affect our results of operations.

Laws and regulations relating to the handling of personal data could result in increased costs, legal claims, or fines. We store and process personally identifiable information from our customers, employees, and third parties with whom we have business relationships. Legal requirements relating to the collection, storage, handling, and transfer of personal  data  continue to evolve and could lead to burdensome or inconsistent requirements affecting the location and movement of our customer and internal employee data as well as the management of the data. For example, in July 2016, the EU and the U.S. agreed on a mechanism for companies to transfer  data  from EU member states to the U.S. This framework, called the  Privacy  Shield, is intended to address shortcomings identified by the European Court of Justice in a predecessor mechanism.

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The  Privacy  Shield and other mechanisms are currently subject to challenges in European courts, which may lead to uncertainty about the legal basis for  data  transfers across the Atlantic. Also, in May 2018, the EU’s new General  Data  Protection Regul ation (GDPR) will replace the existing EU  Data  Protection Directive, and it will have a significant impact on how businesses can collect and process the personal  data  of EU individuals. The GDPR includes a requirement for businesses to self-report personal   data  breaches to the relevant supervisory authority and, under certain circumstances, to the affected  data  subjects. It also gives additional rights to individuals whose  data  are processed, including the “right to erasure” (also commonly known as the righ t to be forgotten) by having their records erased and the right to  data  portability. Compliance with the myriad requirements could involve changes in our services, business practices, or internal systems that could likely increase our costs, lower revenue, reduce efficiency, or make it more difficult to compete with Non-U.S.-based firms. Our failure to comply with existing or new rules could result in significant penalties or orders to stop the alleged noncompliant activity, litigation, adverse publicity, o r could cause our customers to lose trust in our services . In addition, if the third parties we work with violate applicable laws, contractual obligations, or suffer a security breach, those violations could also put us in breach of our obligations under  p rivacy  laws and regulations. Any of these risks could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

New capital projects may not be commercially successful. From time to time, we pursue capital projects, such as our current efforts to upgrade some of our Pursuit offerings in order to seize opportunities that complement, enhance, and expand our business. Capital projects are subject to a number of risks, including unanticipated delays, cost overruns, and the failure to achieve established financial and strategic goals, as well as additional risks specific to a project. The occurrence of any of these events could prevent a new capital project from performing in accordance with our commercial expectations and could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Show rotation affects our profitability and makes comparisons between periods difficult. GES results are largely dependent upon the frequency, timing, and location of exhibitions and events. Some large exhibitions are not held annually (they may be held once every two or three years or longer) or may be held at different times of year from when they were previously held. In addition, the same exhibition may change locations from year to year resulting in lower margins if the exhibition shifts to a higher-cost location. Any of these factors could cause our results of operations to fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter or from year to year, making periodic comparisons difficult.

The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union could adversely affect our business. We operate substantial parts of our EU businesses from U.K-based entities. The June 23, 2016 U.K. referendum resulted in a determination that the U.K. should exit the EU. In March 2017, the U.K. government initiated the exit process under Article 50 of the Treaty of the EU, commencing a period of up to two years for the United Kingdom and the other EU member states to negotiate the terms of the withdrawal. The uncertainty surrounding the timing, terms and consequences of the U.K.’s exit could adversely impact customer and investor confidence, result in additional market volatility and adversely affect our businesses and our results of operations and financial condition. Once the U.K. exits from the EU, the regulatory and legal environment that would then govern our U.K. operations will depend on, in certain respects, the nature of the arrangements agreed to between the U.K., the EU, and other trading partners. It is likely that changes to our legal entity structure and operations in Europe will be required as a result of these arrangements, which might result in a less efficient operating model across our European legal entities.

Liabilities relating to prior and discontinued operations may adversely affect our results of operations. We, and our predecessors, have a corporate history spanning over eight decades and involving approximately 2,400 previous subsidiaries in diverse businesses, such as the manufacturing of locomotives, buses, industrial chemicals, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, leather, textiles, food, and fresh meats. Some of those businesses used raw materials that have been, and may continue to be, subject to litigation. Moreover, some of the raw materials used and the waste produced by those businesses have been and are the subject of U.S. federal and state environmental regulations, including laws enacted under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or its state law counterparts. In addition, we may incur other liabilities, resulting from indemnification claims involving previously sold subsidiaries, as well as from past operations of predecessors or their subsidiaries. Although we believe we have adequate reserves and sufficient insurance coverage to cover those future liabilities, future events or proceedings could contradict with current assumptions, which could cause reserves or insurance to become inadequate and, ultimately, materially and adversely affect our results of operations.