October 2021 marked one year of working for Word of MICE, a company created by Mariska Kesteloo. I was pleasantly surprised because it was Mariska who reminded me of this anniversary by preparing a surprise for me and my wife Alicia. It has been an amazing time in my life.
I would like to share a personal story with you about this extraordinary year and working together with Mariska. Especially since we haven’t met once in the whole year of our collaboration. All the meetings with Mariska took place online on Zoom and using other online tools but we got along very well and I learned what the Dutch sense of humour means.
Read the full article on Word of MICE website.
Update: Great news! I am joining Poland Convention Bureau as their e-Marketing Chief Specialist at Polish Tourism Organisation Headquarters in Warsaw.
London times
A few years ago, when my wife Alicia and I were living in the UK, I noticed that Mariska was actively sharing her knowledge about B2B influencer marketing in the MICE industry. The first time we met in the real world was in London. It was in February 2019 at the International Confex trade show. I remember that I came to the fair in London from Cambridge and, apart from the fair, my main goal was to meet Mariska personally.
For many months Alicia and I lived in London right next to the Kensington Olympia exhibition centre, so it was also a sort of sentimental journey to where we used to live. ….
How one meeting at Confex London can change your life
What a year that was!
…. Mariska invited me to join IBTM World 2019 in Barcelona, she created a collaboration with Reed Exhibitions and wanted me to be on stage to talk about influencer marketing and digital marketing. Unfortunately I couldn’t join her in Barcelona at that time. It was not an easy time for me and just a few months later the pandemic started. The MICE industry was gripped by an unprecedented crisis. It was also a time of learning new skills and creating new collaborations.
One of my first tasks was to participate and support the second season of the B2B Influencer Marketing Chat Series. I was delighted to be able to invite, among others, Phil Gonzalez from the Igers Community (Instagram fans and mobile photographers) to this series and to add a little Polish element in the form of interviews with Anna Górska from ICCA and Robert Szulc – live conversation from Ecuador about incentives.
We had engaging and amazing conversations with representatives of the MICE industry and how they and their companies survived during the pandemic. Through this project I met more people and we spoke to Carina Bauer, Tim Williams, Nyomi Rose, Horacio Caamano, Helen Moon, Maris Kuklis, Antti Lumiainen and Nadia Rubtsova. Listen to the interviews here Season 2 B2B Influencer Marketing Chat Series.
Working at Word of MICE is the perfect opportunity for me to establish new ways of collaborations and executing new B2B influencer marketing campaigns with companies like Singapore Tourism Board, Helsinki Marketing, InspireME from Monaco, Catalunya Convention Bureau or France Convention Bureau.
I had the opportunity to work on campaigns and projects with MICE influencers and content creators such as Sabrina Meyers, Nadia Rubtsova, Nyomi Rose, Meg Strahle, Sina Bunte, Elina Jutelyte, Juliet Tripp, and Jorge Bravo-Pratscher. Miek Egberts will always remain in my thoughts. …..
Once again, read this story on Word of MICE website.
Thank you
Thank you Mariska for involving me in every step of the company, sharing new ideas and projects and how to improve Word of MICE. I also know that Mariska is not only a good business partner, but I have gained a friendly soul. This is very valuable to me and I would never have thought that one meeting in London would bring so much good in my life.
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