Written on 20^th October 2018

The Appointment Group announces the acquisition of Satellite Office Services’ travel business

The Appointment Group (TAG), the award-winning event and travel management company, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the travel management division of Satellite Office Services (SOS), the provider of logistical support for large-scale international concert tours, festivals, and special events. Founded in 2006, SOS provides a full range of logistical services including travel management, entertainment visa coordination, and production support.  Partners Lori Tierney, Wendy Stephenson, and Charles Zimmer have a combined total of over 70 years’ experience working on every facet of the live entertainment industry, including decades on the road with some of the largest and most logistically complex concert tours ever undertaken.  Their travel business has focused particularly on supporting the needs of production crews and steel teams on major tours, and they have a first-class industry reputation for their expertise in this area. By combining SOS’s unique experience in managing crew travel and TAG’s extended global reach, coupled with expertise providing travel services for artists and touring parties of all sizes; from a newly signed act to worldwide established brands, we will truly be able to provide a compelling offering for all artists, bands and their full touring production teams.  This will allow all aspects of their travel needs to be looked after in every corner of the globe.  Our joint comprehensive breadth of experience is unequalled in the industry, and will allow us to enhance our service provision.  The combined travel business will trade as TAG Global Touring and will be managed from TAG’s Los Angeles office.  Visa services will continue to be provided by SOS under their brand and will not be part of the combined business. TAG’s Global Touring Director, Byron Carr said: “We have admired SOS as a business for a number of years and at times enjoyed working alongside them for mutual clients.  We are delighted that Lori, Wendy and Charles have agreed to sell their travel division to TAG so we can mutually work together to create a stronger Global Touring offering to the entertainment industry. We look forward to working alongside them to the benefit of all our clients.” SOS founding partner Lori Tierney said: “We are excited to join forces with TAG and believe that our businesses naturally complement each other.  SOS has an unrivaled expertise in production crew travel and TAG has an industry-leading reputation for quality of service for artist and band parties.  Our first-hand experience on the road informs every aspect of the service we provide, and we look forward to sharing our knowledge and perspective with TAG’s team of specialist entertainment travel agents.” Founding partner Wendy Stephenson added: “SOS has worked in parallel with TAG on a number of the highest grossing tours of the past few years, where TAG has managed the A & B Parties and SOS has looked after the crew, and we mutually recognized that our operations would be more efficient if we combined our business.  TAG has the resources and global presence to help expand our capacity and keep up with the demand for highly specialized production travel management – we feel this will be a natural integration and provide substantial benefit to all our clients.”