Selling Spectrophotometers
On arrival in England, Michael set about exploiting the benefits of his chemistry degree and was duly appointed to the position of Technical Sales Executive at Unicam in Cambridge, selling spectrophotometers. His success in this role led to the offer of a job in the United States training distributors and he and Janice duly moved to New York. Unicam was then purchased by Pye and subsequently by Philips, and this led to a job training a new salesforce under the name of Norelco/Unicam.
Selling Advertising in the Lab Sector
Michael and Janice stayed in the USA for 7 years before returning to the UK in order to set up a Distributor business for infrared analysis instruments. However, whilst in the USA, Michael had written a number of articles for laboratory magazines, so he was well connected in the media and was asked to help sell advertising in Europe. With previous experience selling laboratory instrumentation, Michael was well placed to help instrument manufacturers with their advertising programmes and became very successful in doing so. Unfortunately, however, the publishers which benefited from the increased advertising did not fulfil their commission obligations and Michael found himself in the middle of a legal dispute. Ultimately, Michael won the court case but the seed of an idea was starting to germinate in Michael’s mind…
LabMate
Travelling the world and living on your wits (before the invention of mobile phones, Skype and the Internet) engenders a ‘have a go’ mentality that is symptomatic of entrepreneurs, so it is not surprising that in November 1974, Michael decided to launch his own UK publication: ‘LabMate’. At first, his intention was purely to address the UK and Irish markets, but this soon expanded and International LabMate was launched at Pittcon in March 1976.
International LabMate quickly became hugely popular with the laboratory sector, not only because it had been created by a chemist for chemists, but also because Michael’s experience as an instrumentation manufacturer meant that he understood the needs of the market’s major players.
LabMate’s success was boosted by other synergistic innovations that included laboratory conferences and exhibitions and market-specific publications for sectors such as health & safety. However, one of the major benefits of LabMate’s longevity is its mailing list; for forty years, the publication has been the ‘go to’ source of information on laboratory instrumentation and related news. During this period, the magazine has been available at all of the world’s major laboratory exhibitions and the mailing list has been continuously expanded and refined. As a result, the lengthy list of advertisers at the rear of every copy of LabMate is testament to the fact that anybody wishing to market a laboratory product globally needs to make sure that it appears in LabMate.
International Environmental Technology (IET)
In 1989 Michael’s eldest son Marcus joined the company in the sales department having studied at Leeds University. As well as sales, Marcus enjoyed the challenges of marketing technical/scientific products and helped to extend the company’s success. Marcus also had a keen interest in the environment and was conscious of the growing raft of regulations that was being created around the globe, and the effect that this was having on the environmental instrumentation market. So, in 1990 he launched ‘International Environmental Technology’, the company’s first tabloid publication. By this time, all of the company’s publications were printed in colour and IET quickly became a highly recognisable publication; coming from the LabMate stable, it was an instant success with readers and advertisers.
Building on the strength of IET, a number of new publications were launched soon thereafter. These included:
• 1994: LabAsia • 1996: Asian Environmental Technology (AET) • 1999: Petro Industry News (PIN) • 2003: Measurement Analysis China • 2008: Chromatography Today
These publications in conjunction with a book division and ILM designs (a design and print division providing services to both internal and external customers) have all helped contribute to the multiple awards that ILM Publications has received from the Herts Chamber of Commerce, and in 1996 the company received the Queen’s Award for Export.
Exhibitions and Conferences
The synergy that Michael exploited in the early years with LabMate has since been replicated through the creation and/or management of a wide variety of technical/scientific conferences and associated exhibitions. Many of these events are linked with the growth in environmental monitoring and with the methods and standards that perform an essential role in ensuring that monitoring data is accurate and reliable. These events were supported by many distinguished trade or Environmental Ministers from around the world and even HRH Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip contributed to the opening conference/exhibition catalogues of 1993.
AQE (Formerly MCERTS)
Established in 2003 with the Source Testing Association (STA), the MCERTS events were created to help industry comply with new regulations, such as the Environmental Agency’s Mcerts (monitoring certification) scheme and monitoring requirements relating to emissions to air. Since then, the remit has been expanded and AQE 2015, the international Air Quality and Emissions conference and exhibition will be the 8th event of the series; each larger and more successful than its predecessor.
Pattison with Professor Stephen Hawking at a reception in February at the Science Museum. Michael taught Stephen at St Albans School in 1958, map reading and weaponary.
WWEM
The WWEM events (Water, Wastewater and Environmental Monitoring) were created to address all issues relating to the testing and monitoring of water. WWEM has become a focal point for the water monitoring community worldwide, providing an opportunity for people from every industry to see the latest technologies and to catch up on the latest regulatory requirements. WWEM 2014 will be the 7th event in the series, including conference speakers and exhibitors from all over the world. The remit for this event has also expanded and WWEM 2014 will include simultaneous conference presentations and more than 80 workshops over the 2-day event. The exhibition also grows with each event and visitors have to plan their time very carefully in order to make the most of everything that is available.
CEM
CEM 2014 in Istanbul will be the 11th in a series of International Conferences and Exhibitions focusing on emissions monitoring. Since its inaugural meeting in 1997 the CEM conferences have been held in the UK, The Netherlands, Denmark, France, Italy, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. The CEM event brings together the international emissions monitoring community to network, trade ideas and discuss technology, methods, applications, legislation and standardisation relevant to all atmospheric pollutants including
particulates, SO2, NOx VOCs, trace elements and greenhouse gases. International Labmate under its environmental division has managed the CEM events since 2009.
Mercury 2013
Mercury 2013, the International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP) took place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The event was the 11th in a series that began in Sweden in 1990 and followed closely behind an international agreement to reduce global mercury emissions. Themed ‘Science Informing Global Policy’ the ICMGP events were created to promote discussion and find ways to tackle the environmental and health effects of mercury. International Labmate was asked to manage the 2013 event and enjoyed record numbers of exhibitors and delegates.
Online Marketing
The arrival of the internet made ‘reader reply’ cards redundant because information could be obtained more quickly from advertiser websites. On one hand this was good for readers but for advertisers it became harder to measure response rates and return on investment. However, to address this issue, an array of technical innovations has been built into the company’s online media. For example, advertisers are provided with a personal login that provides them with detailed response data for each of their activities, including PR, editorial, adverts and newsletters.
The range of online media has grown enormously, significantly leveraging the value of publicity in the organisation’s hard-copy publications. These include:
•
Labmate-online.com •
Envirotech-online.com •
Petro-online.com •
Chromatographytoday.com •
Pollutionsolutions-online.com
In addition, the company issues monthly eNewsletters to complement each of these websites, and two further eNewsletters are currently being launched - LabAsia and Mercury News.
Looking back over the last 40 years, if the Old Albanians vs Verulamians match had been rained off, or if the clubhouse had run out of beer, or if Janice had not paid for Michael to return to the UK, or if Michael had not stood his ground when threatened by writs from America, or if Marcus had shown greater interest in the Arts; much of this would never have happened, and the modern, vibrant media empire that encompasses all of the above would never have been created… thank goodness for rugby, beer and Janice!
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF LABMATE 1974-2014
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