- Mesirow managing director Doug Brookman, a longtime ACG participant, will chair the 2026 DealMAX conference in Las Vegas, bringing deep middle-market deal experience to the role.
- DealMAX 2026 will reconfigure the DealMAX Lounge across two ballrooms to improve traffic flow, chance encounters and integration between deal tables and sponsor exhibits.
- The conference is boosting lender participation with dedicated tables, discounted group pricing and tailored sourcing opportunities to better align capital providers with sponsors and strategics.
- Brookman urges attendees to pace meetings, prioritize follow-up, and make time for sponsor booths and content sessions to capture long-term value beyond immediate deal flow.
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The upcoming DealMAX 2026 under Brookman’s leadership reflects a strategic shift toward inclusivity of the full transaction ecosystem, particularly by elevating the role of debt providers alongside traditional sponsors and strategics. The decision to restructure the DealMAX Lounge layout indicates recognition of spatial dynamics in dealmaking—by dividing deal tables and sponsor booths across multiple ballrooms, it aims to optimize traffic flow and facilitate chance encounters that often lead to unexpected opportunities. These enhancements could help Mesirow and others better scan for opportunities in underrepresented industries or regions.
Brookman’s long-standing involvement (over a decade with ACG LA, recent board roles) suggests his network is both broad and deep, giving him domain visibility over emerging deal trends. This is complemented by his practical advice for navigating DealMAX: emphasizing the importance of balance, recognizing signal over noise in numerous 20-minute meetings, and valuing learning content often deprioritized by deal-focused attendees. These counsel offer insight into how dealmakers can extract more long‐term value—not just short‐term deal flow—from such events.
The push to attract lenders and offer them dedicated booths, plus discounted pricing, may reflect broader market conditions: debt markets have been volatile and deal financing a limiting factor. Including lenders can accelerate deal execution and unlock liquidity. Strategically, firms could position themselves to capture synergies between sponsor needs and lender capabilities, perhaps leading to more leveraged or creatively financed middle market deals.
Open questions remain: how will DealMAX manage deal quality vs quantity under this expanded scope of participants? Will the structural changes meaningfully change cross-sector deal origination versus past patterns? And how much of the lender participation leads to actual deal structuring rather than just sponsorship visibility? Observing subsequent DealMAX conferences will reveal whether these changes “move the needle” on deal volume, structure, and speed.
Supporting Notes
- DealMAX 2026 will be in Las Vegas from April 27–29 and expects over 3,200 middle-market M&A professionals. [1]
- Doug Brookman joined Mesirow approximately five years ago and has been part of ACG Los Angeles for over a decade; he joined the DealMAX committee earlier and the ACG HQ board more recently. [1]
- Lounges and deal tables will now be spread across two ballrooms to improve seamlessness and increase traffic among attendees and sponsors. [1]
- New focus on lenders: debt capital markets professionals can purchase dedicated tables, group pricing is discounted for lenders, and tailored deal sourcing opportunities will be built into the Lounge. [1]
- Advice for first‐time attendees: pace yourself, avoid overbooking, expect cancellations due to fatigue. [1]
- Advice for veteran attendees: wander in the hall, explore sponsor booths to uncover innovations, attend content sessions even if meetings are the primary focus. [1]
Sources
- [1] middlemarketgrowth.org (Middle Market Growth / ACG) — 2025-12-10