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.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
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 .....
Monday, 7 September 2009
Delivery promises ... broken
A lot of sector businesses are busily shopping for alternative delivery services following the ongoing disruption to Royal Mail postal services. But who is working to bolster consumer confidence in buying direct during this period ? The long term damage caused to our multi-channel retail clients' businesses cannot easily be measured .... and not all businesses currently have the volumes to be able find an alternative carrier for all of the business they would ordinarily hand without question to Royal Mail. At ECMOD we will attempt to address these issues via two sessions which will review the current offerings in the alternative carrier market ... be sure to take part !
Still on the issue of delivery, how gracious of Cotton Traders to finally write to me on 2nd September to cancel an order placed on 20th July - for which it had seen fit charge my credit card on processing said order. Without putting too fine a point on it, this is contrary to the spirit of distance selling regulations and it makes me wonder how many others are inadvertently "funding" the likes of Cotton Traders. Can't be doing its own, or indeed the sector's, reputation any favours through such shoddy practice and its tardy customer communications process.
Still on the issue of delivery, how gracious of Cotton Traders to finally write to me on 2nd September to cancel an order placed on 20th July - for which it had seen fit charge my credit card on processing said order. Without putting too fine a point on it, this is contrary to the spirit of distance selling regulations and it makes me wonder how many others are inadvertently "funding" the likes of Cotton Traders. Can't be doing its own, or indeed the sector's, reputation any favours through such shoddy practice and its tardy customer communications process.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
ECMOD conference programme published !!!!
All the chasing & the juggling is now complete - we have our all new, sizzling, conference programme for the 7th & 8th October fully confirmed. We're back at Earls Court Exhibition Centre - in the Brompton Halls which is right opposite West Brompton station.
We've a special overnight room rate secured at our ECMOD HQ hotel The Copthorne Tara, Kensington as well as the Catalogue Exchange/ECMOD Supplier Awards taking place at the hotel on the evening of 7th October.
All ECMOD delegates can look forward to a fantastic array of speakers from the UK & the USA with great networking, business development and learning opportunities - all under one roof. Not forgetting the extensive ECMOD exhibition which features some of the best specialist suppliers in the business ! There is plenty to appeal to everyone and until August 15th there are fabulous early bird discounts on offer with all delegates from Catalogue Exchange member companies receiving great discounts too !
It can all be found at www.ecmod360.co.uk
We've a special overnight room rate secured at our ECMOD HQ hotel The Copthorne Tara, Kensington as well as the Catalogue Exchange/ECMOD Supplier Awards taking place at the hotel on the evening of 7th October.
All ECMOD delegates can look forward to a fantastic array of speakers from the UK & the USA with great networking, business development and learning opportunities - all under one roof. Not forgetting the extensive ECMOD exhibition which features some of the best specialist suppliers in the business ! There is plenty to appeal to everyone and until August 15th there are fabulous early bird discounts on offer with all delegates from Catalogue Exchange member companies receiving great discounts too !
It can all be found at www.ecmod360.co.uk
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Thanks, thanks, thanks
A frantic few days & all the finer details of the ECMOD programme are finally in ... and we have to say that this year's offering is nothing short of awesome. Our theme Driving Profitability has really begun to strike chords in our ECMOD community - and client side speakers are keen to share their experience & help others on the path to success. There isn't a multichannel, etail , retail or catalogue business of note that won't be looking to take part. And with some of the most talented expert speakers heading over from the US, all ECMOD participants get access to the best of both worlds. Understandably we are already fielding registrations for the conference and for the exhibition .... and there are fantastic early bird deals available for those who move quickly to snap up the allocation.
Latest speakers to join: Andrew Shapin of Long Tall Sally; Sam Andrews of Snow Valley; Luke Dashper of Selective Marketplace; Terry Flynn of Headsets.com (USA) ..... & new exhibitors are signing up daily
www.ecmod360.co.uk to keep up to date
ECMOD2009
7-8 October
Earls Court Exhibition Centre
Latest speakers to join: Andrew Shapin of Long Tall Sally; Sam Andrews of Snow Valley; Luke Dashper of Selective Marketplace; Terry Flynn of Headsets.com (USA) ..... & new exhibitors are signing up daily
www.ecmod360.co.uk to keep up to date
ECMOD2009
7-8 October
Earls Court Exhibition Centre
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Driving Profitability - a fitting ECMOD theme
Will admit to having been somewhat sidetracked over past month ... with the hugely successful Catalogue Exchange Annual Summit on June 3rd - the Feefo reviews of said Summit, new developments for the Catalogue Exchange website, Twitter (yes, we're hooked follow us @ECMODSHOW) and chasing our lovely ECMOD speakers for the niceties - like pix & biogs ....
& do we have an impressive line-up this year ?!!!
I can now confirm the full programme which has so much great material to compress into two solid days that we've added breakfast sessions, over-lunch sessions, a great evening soiree for the Catalogue Exchange members & their guests ...& more - we have US experts galore combining with some of the most successful practitioners in the UK to deliver a brilliant blend of inspirational "on the money"tips, advice, all of it practical & applicable to your business. Session topics include digital & direct marketing, exploiting social media, trigger emails, branding, copywriting, creative, international, website usability, data mining, catalogue circulation planning, systems implementation, production, SEO, SEM, business development & more. Remember too that unlike many of the current wave of broader based events, when you take part in the ECMOD conference you will not be queueing with a bunch of students and assorted freeloaders to listen to sales pitches from suppliers in a flimsy temporary structure with poor acoustics - you will instead be taking your seat in a purpose built, comfortable conference room with your peers. Our registration fees are modest - the value is stunning - and with early bird rates in place to encourage you to reserve your seats ...... this year's ECMOD is a stunner.
Catalogue Exchange members get an even bigger discount as well as access to special member only sessions - including the unique Behind Closed Doors discussion for client side CEOs, MDs, & other board directors .... and there is a even a VIP dining area this year ! Sorry to keep wittering on about the Catalogue Exchange - but you must understand how passionate we are about it. It is an inner circle that has some of the most active businesses in the sector fully involved in supporting each other .... and with annual membership of just £245 for client side businesses with sales up to £1 million - and just £495 for those with over £1 million annual sales - it is the bargain of the century. Associate membership for supplier organisations is pegged at £695 a year ... and helps these businesses to foster strong mutually beneficial relationships with our full member companies. www.catalogueexchange.co.uk or follow @CatalogueEx on Twitter to learn of new members joining, upcoming events, and special member offers.
Back to ECMOD ....
New this time is an International Boulevard in the exhibition hall for all our expert international service providers - international is huge this year with great opportunities for businesses in all niches to extend their reach ..... we have some excellent conference content too on international marketing & logistics ....
We also have a Catalogue Exchange Village - a lovely area of the exhibition hall constructed around a central cafe with CatEx associate member stands lining its walkways - here there'll be hosted lunch sessions, a meeting point, advice desks & lots more ....
TA Design is running a competition to win free catalogue makeover worth £7000 .... and there are loads of other great show offers being lined up.
The dates: October 7-8 at Earls Court Exhibition Centre
www.ecmod360.co.uk
& do we have an impressive line-up this year ?!!!
I can now confirm the full programme which has so much great material to compress into two solid days that we've added breakfast sessions, over-lunch sessions, a great evening soiree for the Catalogue Exchange members & their guests ...& more - we have US experts galore combining with some of the most successful practitioners in the UK to deliver a brilliant blend of inspirational "on the money"tips, advice, all of it practical & applicable to your business. Session topics include digital & direct marketing, exploiting social media, trigger emails, branding, copywriting, creative, international, website usability, data mining, catalogue circulation planning, systems implementation, production, SEO, SEM, business development & more. Remember too that unlike many of the current wave of broader based events, when you take part in the ECMOD conference you will not be queueing with a bunch of students and assorted freeloaders to listen to sales pitches from suppliers in a flimsy temporary structure with poor acoustics - you will instead be taking your seat in a purpose built, comfortable conference room with your peers. Our registration fees are modest - the value is stunning - and with early bird rates in place to encourage you to reserve your seats ...... this year's ECMOD is a stunner.
Catalogue Exchange members get an even bigger discount as well as access to special member only sessions - including the unique Behind Closed Doors discussion for client side CEOs, MDs, & other board directors .... and there is a even a VIP dining area this year ! Sorry to keep wittering on about the Catalogue Exchange - but you must understand how passionate we are about it. It is an inner circle that has some of the most active businesses in the sector fully involved in supporting each other .... and with annual membership of just £245 for client side businesses with sales up to £1 million - and just £495 for those with over £1 million annual sales - it is the bargain of the century. Associate membership for supplier organisations is pegged at £695 a year ... and helps these businesses to foster strong mutually beneficial relationships with our full member companies. www.catalogueexchange.co.uk or follow @CatalogueEx on Twitter to learn of new members joining, upcoming events, and special member offers.
Back to ECMOD ....
New this time is an International Boulevard in the exhibition hall for all our expert international service providers - international is huge this year with great opportunities for businesses in all niches to extend their reach ..... we have some excellent conference content too on international marketing & logistics ....
We also have a Catalogue Exchange Village - a lovely area of the exhibition hall constructed around a central cafe with CatEx associate member stands lining its walkways - here there'll be hosted lunch sessions, a meeting point, advice desks & lots more ....
TA Design is running a competition to win free catalogue makeover worth £7000 .... and there are loads of other great show offers being lined up.
The dates: October 7-8 at Earls Court Exhibition Centre
www.ecmod360.co.uk
Friday, 8 May 2009
Getting It Sorted !
Lovely day today. Getting all the speaker biogs into shape & putting the structure in for the conference programme - it is looking good ! John Lenser & Michelle Farabaugh from Lenser in the USA, Amy Africa & Ernie Schell coming back over, Bill LaPierre from Millard over for the first time, the delectable Justin Metcalf returning to grace our event - plus lots of fabulous client side contributors.
What with the Catalogue Exchange Village and the International Boulevard lined up for the Exhibition Hall it is all looking spectacularly good. Exhibition stands are being booked on a daily basis now that we're into the new financial year's budget for lots of companies.
Visit www.ecmod360.co.uk for an update on how the show is developing - you can also register there to visit the exhibition on 7th & 8th October - no charge for coming in to browse the stands - and the conference fees will be finalised next week with fabulous discounts on offer for all those who book early and are/or are Catalogue Exchange members ..... watch this space ....
What with the Catalogue Exchange Village and the International Boulevard lined up for the Exhibition Hall it is all looking spectacularly good. Exhibition stands are being booked on a daily basis now that we're into the new financial year's budget for lots of companies.
Visit www.ecmod360.co.uk for an update on how the show is developing - you can also register there to visit the exhibition on 7th & 8th October - no charge for coming in to browse the stands - and the conference fees will be finalised next week with fabulous discounts on offer for all those who book early and are/or are Catalogue Exchange members ..... watch this space ....
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