Born from the desire to make business more joyful, help the industry become more efficient and move away from traditional exhibitions, we’ve crafted a formula of 1–2–1 meetings combined with unique destination-focused activities, connection-building opportunities, and exciting nightlife experiences. M&i specializes in networking trade shows with a twist. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries? Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. What began as a one-man band is now a fine-tuned Marketing & Technology team with 20 members of staff. Back in 2011, he wanted to hire an experienced marketer but put his trust in me and allowed me to grow my skills and the department. The other person is m&i’s CEO, Richard Barnes. As I started my new role as Director of Marketing at m&i (directing only myself), this was the inspiration and the motivation I needed to make the company invest in a real marketing strategy. At the time, the company was still in the mindset of growth through aggressive sales. She was so inspiring and made such a strong case for the importance of marketing in companies. She was part of the hottest tech start up in London at the time and was an advocate of the lean analytics movement. She was the instructor of a digital marketing course I enrolled in. ![]() I have a few people to be grateful for, starting with Heri Kashema, our Director of Sales, who got me an interview with m&i 13 years ago.īut they are two people who influenced my career. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story? None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. She saw through the silliness that day and I think she’s a great leader. I now really look up to Carina Bauer, IMEX CEO. I learnt that you should always respect your peers, even if they are competitors (also don’t try to be funny when you deal with a large audience, unless you possess genuine comedic skills). But I genuinely thought it would be funny. We entered the MICE markets as disruptors, and I probably embraced the rebel model a little bit too hard. It took our CEO speaking directly to the IMEX CEO to resolve the issue, and the team went to the show with their tails between their legs. When our Sales Team tried to organize their pass for the event, the IMEX crew told them the whole team was blacklisted. It was a controversial poster because it was about a competitor trade show, but what made it even more controversial is that I thought it would be ‘funny’ to send this as an email to the whole industry the week before IMEX Frankfurt. One of the posters was Amy Winehouse: ‘They’re trying to make me go to IMEX and I said NO, NO, NO’. Think Spice Girls and ‘MICE up your life’ or Elvis ‘Let me tender, Let me meet’. The idea was to rename the song and to make the meaning applicable to the Meeting & Events industry. ![]() One of our previous marketing campaigns involved the team dressing up as pop stars and replicating famous albums or single covers during a photo shoot. It’s a hugely exciting and interesting topic and I’m delighted to work on making the metaverse a reality for the MICE world.Ĭan you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that? There is no time like the present, and I’m lucky to have recently joined the team at RendezVerse, working on the first Hotel & Events metaverse. Fast forward 13 years and I’m now Director of Marketing & Technology for that same company.Ĭan you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? At the time I was learning the ropes of the music industry and festival events, when an old friend called me with a job opportunity to work at m&i, inviting buyers to attend MICE networking events. ![]() After spending time in Edinburgh, Barcelona and Montreal, I settled in London in 2007. ![]() I loved the idea of being able to communicate with the whole world, so I studied languages and got to study and work abroad. I wanted to be in with the locals, a part of the fauna. However, the tourist life didn’t appeal to me. I grew up in a remote part of France and always had a drive to explore the world. Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
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