My first meeting with Don Libey took place in a lovely little Italian restaurant called Antico - Eton High Street - it is still there ! He and Jim Bromley from RapidForms had come over to sort out the acquisition of a UK business forms business called Standard Forms (Romsey, Hants)..
It was one of those meetings that went on and on ..... skipping from one topic to another - and I think (at least) found me a new a friend. Ever since - and I think it must have been as long ago as 1987 or perhaps 1988 - we've found ways to work together. Don has spoken at ECMOD as well as at a few other standalone conferences run by my business - and, of course, had been an ECMOD Awards judge as well as a speaker at Catalogue Exchange events. I've also been delighted to be able to publish articles by Don in Catalogue e-Business magazine - but that's a whole new story.
What many people don't know is that it was Don who initially recommended Amy Africa to me when I was scouring the world for a brilliant speaker on all things web ! Don also introduced to Kevin Hillstrom .... in other words he has been of enormous help to my businesses from way back right up to now.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Whoops some of charter event chaps overlooked
How did I manage to forget Gordon Ellis-Brown from the roster of attendees at that very first ECMOD - sorry ! Think there were a few others too - very possibly John Hearle from Seton.
That brings me neatly around to Seton. Recall my first meeting with Dick Fiske who was then US CEO of the business at a conference of the Business Mailers Group in Chicago - 1984 ? Anyway made a small presentation there about international (UK) opportunities awaiting US B2B catalog businesses - and Dick decided to test. A few months later and the lovely John Hearle had been assigned from the UK Brady Corporation team to lead the start-up and my business LMI provided the lists, print management, and lettershop work. Suffice to say the Seton UK business went on to flourish and I even had a hand in finding its first marketing manager who was brought in as the first UK catalogues were coming on stream and I also had a bit of a hand in recommending Sanderson's Mailbrain solution to the business. What's great these days is that Seton has won lots of ECMOD Awards - it is a real role model for the B2B sector - and that its current CEO Peter Sephton spoke at our ECMOD2009 conference. (Indeed I remember when Peter first joined the business and took part in a certification programme which we ran in association with Ernie Schell in Worcester). And Dick Fiske along with head of international Guy Markhewka became fabulous sources of new US B2B contacts - including the fabulous Don Libey who I must have known since 1985 ?
more later ....
That brings me neatly around to Seton. Recall my first meeting with Dick Fiske who was then US CEO of the business at a conference of the Business Mailers Group in Chicago - 1984 ? Anyway made a small presentation there about international (UK) opportunities awaiting US B2B catalog businesses - and Dick decided to test. A few months later and the lovely John Hearle had been assigned from the UK Brady Corporation team to lead the start-up and my business LMI provided the lists, print management, and lettershop work. Suffice to say the Seton UK business went on to flourish and I even had a hand in finding its first marketing manager who was brought in as the first UK catalogues were coming on stream and I also had a bit of a hand in recommending Sanderson's Mailbrain solution to the business. What's great these days is that Seton has won lots of ECMOD Awards - it is a real role model for the B2B sector - and that its current CEO Peter Sephton spoke at our ECMOD2009 conference. (Indeed I remember when Peter first joined the business and took part in a certification programme which we ran in association with Ernie Schell in Worcester). And Dick Fiske along with head of international Guy Markhewka became fabulous sources of new US B2B contacts - including the fabulous Don Libey who I must have known since 1985 ?
more later ....
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Deeper Inside - Anniversary Looming
Ok so now here we are with ECMOD2009 delivered and feedback kindly collected and processed by Feefo - and responded to by yours truly.
So what has changed since our very first event which, incidentally was co-located with a (then) groundbreaking seminar on that latest new breakthrough the CD-ROM - on Brunel University's Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey campus. Delegates included Nigel Swabey, who was heading up Innovations back then, and who attended with Judi Fox - who remains a colleague at Nigel's current business Scotts & Co. We also welcomed John Wright from Blue Sheep, Steve Blain from Sanderson, a couple of chaps from Polestar, Lynn Lewis from Nauticalia, & a smattering of others. I believe that we had some of the Misco & Waterlow people in attendance, Graham Lomax who was then with Power-Up Software, & possibly also Henry Heavisides. That was it. A simple single day conference. The brochure for the event was a very amateur looking 4 pager which mailed to our whole database - then a somewhat paltry 700 names. We got some coverage in Direct Response which helped build some awareness resulting in a total of 48 in attendance and the feedback was good enough to make us - Michael Balmforth and me - to stage a follow up.
Meanwhile the CD-ROM seminar delivered by US presenter & long term Fred Stern drew around 30 delegates from a wide range of organisations - UK & overseas - for which was pretty much cutting edge stuff for its era.
So what has changed since our very first event which, incidentally was co-located with a (then) groundbreaking seminar on that latest new breakthrough the CD-ROM - on Brunel University's Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey campus. Delegates included Nigel Swabey, who was heading up Innovations back then, and who attended with Judi Fox - who remains a colleague at Nigel's current business Scotts & Co. We also welcomed John Wright from Blue Sheep, Steve Blain from Sanderson, a couple of chaps from Polestar, Lynn Lewis from Nauticalia, & a smattering of others. I believe that we had some of the Misco & Waterlow people in attendance, Graham Lomax who was then with Power-Up Software, & possibly also Henry Heavisides. That was it. A simple single day conference. The brochure for the event was a very amateur looking 4 pager which mailed to our whole database - then a somewhat paltry 700 names. We got some coverage in Direct Response which helped build some awareness resulting in a total of 48 in attendance and the feedback was good enough to make us - Michael Balmforth and me - to stage a follow up.
Meanwhile the CD-ROM seminar delivered by US presenter & long term Fred Stern drew around 30 delegates from a wide range of organisations - UK & overseas - for which was pretty much cutting edge stuff for its era.
Inside Eye - 20 year anniversary looming
What many ECMOD delegates, visitors, exhibitors, speakers, sponsors don't know is how ECMOD came into being or, for that matter, how long it has been going. This is important stuff because what most of you won't know either is that half a dozen or so major publishing groups have tried to acquire ECMOD over the years and all have been rejected. Yes, some were lucrative and would have seen yours truly able to walk away with a tidy reward. And the most recent was outrageous - ie: they'd take the show and swallow it whole into their own upstart event for, well, nothing at all ! OK times have become a little tougher these past two years and budgets have been cut by all businesses - but ECMOD is here to stay. If the right buyer comes along - ie: a buyer who will retain the Devon based team and grow the business - of course a deal will be done. But it has to be the right deal or no deal at all.
So where is the value in ECMOD ? Let's first consider its history. It is not an recent upstart of an event jumping on the internet/home shopping bandwagon and nor was it ever formed to make its founder a fast buck. It was one of few routes into the market left open to yours truly, following a real dog of a deal done with KLP (remember them?) for the direct marketing services business I used to own a minority stake in. As often happens, the buyer really didn't understand any of the dozen or more of the businesses acquired (funny that, as KLP's CEO went on to become President of the UK DMA !) and nor did the buyer bring anything tangible to the party. Instead it choked what had been a very successful entrepreneurial business with red tape, pointless meetings, stuff & nonsense whilst continuing to make further acquisitions.
Mere months into the new ownership - which saw me locked into a nasty no compete contract and having seen none of the promised rewards - I walked out leaving two particularly vicious employees (witches) battling to take my place. My onerous no compete service agreement prevented me from going into any of the business areas that the group was active in - and, of course, from taking any clients with me. Clients included many international publishing and B2B catalogue businesses - many of which were headquartered in the US as well as a growing number of consumer catalogue businesses and charities.
One of the aforementioned "witches" even had the gall to call me at home with a fake American accent pretending to be looking for help with its launch in the UK ... such was the paranoia of the group. I had never thought myself to be particularly powerful - I was simple good at sniffing out business opportunities, making two and two equal six or more, and following my nose. So there we were in leafy riverside Datchet with a private eye assigned to watch my house and receiving these silly calls. Crazy ! My then 7 year old daughter found the whole business hysterical. Looking back it was sheer madness - and once I started my new venture my former clients in the US, Asia, Europe and the UK were there for me in droves. I had lots of offers come my way but was careful not to wind up in court so with a little consultancy here and there to keep the wolf from the door I had the chance to do something that had always appealed to me.
I had always been a fan of Joe Hanson, the founder and publisher of Catalog Age and Folio magazines in the US. He had developed tradeshows for both titles and I'd exhibited at them, and had also been a regular (often lone British) exhibitor at the US DMA Fall & Spring shows. At one stage I helped Joe with some subscription marketing in Europe but there were few takers for Catalog Age as it was just too American for most. I got hold of my old friend Adrian Courtenay (founder & publisher of what was the leading US sector publication DM News) and asked his advice. I had modelled a publication I launched in the UK - called World List News - on his title (this was one of the assets of LMI that KLP was swift to have me sell off ). Old chum & former client Michael Balmforth was at a bit of a loose end - between roles - and within a few weeks of my exiting LMI, Mike and I had promoted and delivered our very first Catalogue Day conference. That was in 1990. Michael moved on to other major things in the US and Europe leaving me with a fledgling business that could only work if I undertook other projects - so undertake other projects I did !
more coming soon .....
So where is the value in ECMOD ? Let's first consider its history. It is not an recent upstart of an event jumping on the internet/home shopping bandwagon and nor was it ever formed to make its founder a fast buck. It was one of few routes into the market left open to yours truly, following a real dog of a deal done with KLP (remember them?) for the direct marketing services business I used to own a minority stake in. As often happens, the buyer really didn't understand any of the dozen or more of the businesses acquired (funny that, as KLP's CEO went on to become President of the UK DMA !) and nor did the buyer bring anything tangible to the party. Instead it choked what had been a very successful entrepreneurial business with red tape, pointless meetings, stuff & nonsense whilst continuing to make further acquisitions.
Mere months into the new ownership - which saw me locked into a nasty no compete contract and having seen none of the promised rewards - I walked out leaving two particularly vicious employees (witches) battling to take my place. My onerous no compete service agreement prevented me from going into any of the business areas that the group was active in - and, of course, from taking any clients with me. Clients included many international publishing and B2B catalogue businesses - many of which were headquartered in the US as well as a growing number of consumer catalogue businesses and charities.
One of the aforementioned "witches" even had the gall to call me at home with a fake American accent pretending to be looking for help with its launch in the UK ... such was the paranoia of the group. I had never thought myself to be particularly powerful - I was simple good at sniffing out business opportunities, making two and two equal six or more, and following my nose. So there we were in leafy riverside Datchet with a private eye assigned to watch my house and receiving these silly calls. Crazy ! My then 7 year old daughter found the whole business hysterical. Looking back it was sheer madness - and once I started my new venture my former clients in the US, Asia, Europe and the UK were there for me in droves. I had lots of offers come my way but was careful not to wind up in court so with a little consultancy here and there to keep the wolf from the door I had the chance to do something that had always appealed to me.
I had always been a fan of Joe Hanson, the founder and publisher of Catalog Age and Folio magazines in the US. He had developed tradeshows for both titles and I'd exhibited at them, and had also been a regular (often lone British) exhibitor at the US DMA Fall & Spring shows. At one stage I helped Joe with some subscription marketing in Europe but there were few takers for Catalog Age as it was just too American for most. I got hold of my old friend Adrian Courtenay (founder & publisher of what was the leading US sector publication DM News) and asked his advice. I had modelled a publication I launched in the UK - called World List News - on his title (this was one of the assets of LMI that KLP was swift to have me sell off ). Old chum & former client Michael Balmforth was at a bit of a loose end - between roles - and within a few weeks of my exiting LMI, Mike and I had promoted and delivered our very first Catalogue Day conference. That was in 1990. Michael moved on to other major things in the US and Europe leaving me with a fledgling business that could only work if I undertook other projects - so undertake other projects I did !
more coming soon .....
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