Asset International, a b-to-b financial media company based in New York and backed by private equity firm Austin Ventures, has been setting its sights on international expansion for its event group. While the company already has a foothold in London, brand launches are underway there as well as in Hong Kong.

According to Jason Cassidy, AI's senior vice president of strategy and development, the company produces about a dozen events a year of varying sizes—small award ceremonies and seminars to larger shows of several hundred attendees.

Up to now, AI's Global Custodian brand, with offices and an event in London, has been the extent of the company's global footprint. Going forward, says Cassidy, the plan is to launch more events in London and expand into Hong Kong. The ai5000 group, which serves the chief investment officer vertical, is the first to expand in London and Hong Kong.

Key to launching their events, however, has been to first prime the market with magazines and Web sites. "Our ai5000 brand was a simultaneously launched," says Cassidy. "We launched our first digital publication a year ago and had our first event a year later. Getting some establishment and credibility with a group of eyeballs and advertisers and sponsors has been the way we've done it. It's not a ton of lead time, it's not like we need a 5-year standing brand out there, but to have some affinity at least for that year for that brand helped us to get the credibility."

As for region selection, Cassidy says they follow the money. "As we look at different places to invest in, especially in the mutual funds space, we're looking to see where there's a significant critical mass of institutional investors as well as money managers."

From there, Cassidy measures the ability of advertiser and sponsor prospects to get in front of that potential audience. The more difficult it is, the better the opportunity for AI.

The cost of growing an event internationally, says Cassidy, is largely attached to setting up the brand in a region prior to launching the show, along with the more traditional cost structure of executing the show itself. "The more intangible and probably the biggest cost for us is establishing the brand and getting the audience that's willing to come to these events. You could say the entire cost of us launching the ai5000 print and digital publications was part of us getting enough of a foothold that we could actually hold an event."

There's plenty of room for growth in the events group, says Cassidy, and the international expansion is fueling that growth. Asset International's data business makes up more than half of the company's revenues, he says. Events share the rest of the pie with the other media properties in print and digital.