David Wheeler has planned marathons in Moscow, London, New York and Antarctica. But his biggest event may be yet to come.

The Chicago resident and Norwalk native has teamed with three Iowans – Tracy Fuller and Mike Mars of Des Moines and Chris Barnard in Bettendorf – to form The Protocol Group Inc., an event-planning firm.

The market for event planning is fragmented among hundreds of companies. In the United States, the industry accounts for an estimated $80 billion in annual spending, of which the biggest player, Interpublic Group Cos. subsidiary Jack Morton, has sales of about $700 million annually, Wheeler said.

The founders of Des Moines-based Protocol Group believe the Midwest and the companies based here are underserved when it comes to professionally staged events, including sports competitions, political gatherings, corporate presentations and galas. Protocol Group plans to offer event-planning services in Omaha, Kansas City and Oklahoma City initially and later expand.

“The Principal Financial Groups, Pellas and Vermeers of the world, we believe, are opportunities,” Wheeler said. “New York and Los Angeles is where most of this industry is based. This is flyover space. They don’t even know we’re here.”

Other events that the company’s founders have experience at producing include corporate holiday parties, conventions, management and shareholder meetings, awards ceremonies, political campaign-related events, press conferences, fund-raising gatherings, sponsorship placements. They also have expertise in marketing for sports-related events and incentive travel and other performance improvement programs.

The blend of skills comes from the experience of the company’s founders. Fuller owned Happy Occasions, which specialized in catering, décor and set design. Mars owned Bow & Arrow Productions, which produced corporate theatrical events. That company handled the scripting for Gov. Tom Vilsack’s swearing-in ceremony a year ago. Chris Barnard owned Blackhawk Performance Services, which produced corporate events and developed incentive travel programs, among other services. Those three companies have now been folded into Protocol Group.

Wheeler moved to Chicago at the age of 26. From an apartment in the Wrigleyville neighborhood, he spent his weekends organizing running events, three-on-three basketball tournaments and other sports competitions. His small company, David B. Wheeler & Associates, got its big break when it was asked to help produce a marathon in Moscow in 1989. The event was the Soviet Union’s first paid professional sporting event, he said.

He was asked to do the event again the next year, and he worked as a liaison between the race’s producers and television directors. He met representatives from the London Marathon and went on to help produce portions that race, as well as the New York City and Boston marathons. He later organized a marathon in Antarctica.

His first corporate client was Motorola Inc., which he helped become a sponsor of the Moscow marathon. His company began winning more event-planning and travel-related business from Motorola. Other corporate clients followed, including BP Amoco PLC and Lucent Technologies Inc. His company, now called Protocol International, has 12 employees and offices in London and Hong Kong.

In 1999, Deloitte & Touche approached Wheeler about selling the business. He agreed, spent a year working as a consultant during the transition, and then searched for something else to do.

Wheeler worked with former Maine Sen. George Mitchell on a project called Myvalues.com, an effort to promote ethics and responsible behavior among businesses.

Wheeler first met Fuller and Mars last fall, when he was hired as a consultant to help stage Gov. Vilsack’s inauguration. The idea of forming a single company stemmed from there, he said.

In August, the company produced a presidential forum in Des Moines that was hosted by the National Health Policy Council and sponsored by AstraZeneca PLC, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, AARP and other health-care-oriented groups and companies. The event was covered by more than 85 newspapers and was broadcast live on C-SPAN. It will be replicated in February in Milwaukee, and the Protocol Group again will put it together.

Wheeler expects the Protocol Group to have gross profits of $10 million within four years, and the company is considering acquisitions to “get us there a little faster,” Wheeler said.

Protocol Group wants to serve companies “that are looking for new ways to reach customers and who want to present themselves in a world-class way,” Wheeler said.