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 .....