London's calling! SOG's Ryan Lewis on song as he wows visitors to top biotech expo in Japan

Londoneast-uk Business and Technical Park has set up a special 'LaunchPad' programme in a bid to attract more international companies to consider locating to the science centre in Dagenham.

This month Ryan Lewis, Site Operations Manager, attended a key global biotechnology industry event in Japan to promote LaunchPad which offers global businesses short-term licences to enable them to cost-effectively road-test the unique facilities that Londoneast-uk has to offer.

The Park is owned by Cheshire-based SOG Group which also operates a sister site in Runcorn, The Heath Business and Technical Park.
More than 900 organisations from 30 countries attended BioJapan Expo 2018, staged in Yokohama, which is Asia’s premier networking event and exhibition for the biotechnology industry.

Attending for the first time, Londoneast-uk certainly managed to make a lasting impression thanks largely to Ryan’s musical expertise. Outside of work he is the bass guitarist in popular Merseyside band, The Hummingbirds.

At Yokohama he played with a band of other musically talented Brits from the UK science sector to entertain the global audience with renditions of ‘London’s Calling’ by The Clash and the Oasis hit ‘Wonderwall’. The UK band was the brainchild of Phil Jackson of MedCity UK, the organisation that promotes and grows the life-sciences clusters in the South East of England.
Said Ryan: “We performed London’s calling to promote the South East and Wonderwall as a song that is so synonymous with Manchester, to highlight the UK science offer in the North West.”
Bands from the United States and Japan also took part and Ryan was such a hit that the band from BioJapan — the Expo organisers — even invited him to join them on stage where he performed a rendition of The Beatles hit, ‘Let It Be’.

“I was struggling a little at some of the networking meetings trying to explain to Japanese people who SOG are and what we do. However, music is an international language everybody understands and BioJapan’s ‘Battle of the Bands’ evening was a brilliant and fun way of breaking down the barriers. It was such a massive success that the organisers intend to make it a regular feature of the annual Expo.

“The Expo gave me the opportunity to not only promote Londoneast-uk but to highlight The Heath Business and Technical Park and also talk about what SOG Group has to offer overall.”
As well as meeting numerous international businesses Ryan — the son of SOG’s owner John Lewis — also met with the UK’s Ambassador to Tokyo Paul Madden to brief him about the innovative LaunchPad programme.

Launchpad offers businesses:
• fully serviced office space for 3 months
• fully serviced laboratory — wet & dry labs — for 3 months
• manufacturing, warehouse & storage availability
• discounts for further occupancy
The programme also offer business support for marketing, sales and finance and can help businesses and organisations who locate to Londoneast-uk with networking and introductions to leading trade, research and university and industry associations.
Londoneast-uk is based in a fast developing area of East London. Resident businesses range from early start-ups to mature companies from a broad spectrum of sectors including healthcare, engineering, bio-medical and automotive.

Adds Ryan: “LaunchPad provides international companies looking to build or extend a business in the UK with a base and address from which to operate whilst they take time to explore the UK’s scientific capacity, and how this can benefit their business. The programme was well received at BioJapan and is already generating enquiries.”

About Londoneast-UK
Londoneast-uk Business and Technical Park is situated in Dagenham, east London, and is located in state-of-the-art scientific buildings and land which was once a major manufacturing plant of global pharmaceutical company Sanofi. Now under the ownership of SOG Group — owner and operator of the award-winning Heath Business and Technical Park in Cheshire —highly specialised research & development and manufacturing buildings, which would cost tens of millions of pounds to replicate in today’s market, have been rebranded under the banner of Londoneast-uk and are being transformed into a business and technical park to service London and the Home Counties. Londoneast-uk operates as a sister park to The Heath in Runcorn which is regarded as one of the UK’s leading independently-owned technology parks.

For more information, please see:
www.londoneast-uk.com

PAUL SMITH ASSOCIATES
25th October 2018