It's lovely how paths can cross, I think. This blog post is about roads that cross each other and all the beautiful things that can arise from that. Read on to find out more about the making of goMICE!
For goMICE
I can hardly imagine it now, but there was a life before goMICE and UNIGLOBE. For years, I worked in management and executive roles at companies such as L'Oréal, Coca-Cola, and the USG group. Rob (co-founder of goMICE and UNIGLOBE) also worked at L'Oréal at the time and later became marketing manager at Sara Lee. However, somewhere around 2004, we felt the desire to put our acquired knowledge into practice by starting our own independent business. Our own company. As a franchisee, as that was decided quite quickly.
The search began and during that period, we examined an enormous number of franchise organisations. We wanted not only to inject our business knowledge into the company but, most importantly, our passion. After extensive research, a path suddenly crossed ours. The advertisement from UNIGLOBE International and the requested entrepreneur profile were a perfect fit for us.
A logical choice
The choice was very logical. We love to travel and it's safe to say that we had some experience. The younger Anita, who had just graduated, didn't really need to start a “steady” life. I wanted to travel and started working as a tour guide.
For six years, I travelled the world with groups from the United States. I would set off for 3 months at a time and looked after 50 Americans. I really felt like Floortje Dessing and thoroughly enjoyed travelling and discovering all sorts of new cultures. I loved it!
What I especially liked back then is today the philosophy behind goMICE. It's not just the travelling that I loved. To give participants a fantastic experience, that's what I enjoyed the most.
Beautiful, isn't it? How paths can cross. Of course, I couldn't have known then that the experience of travelling would come together with my experience in business later in my career.
Taking the plunge
In 2005, we embarked on the grand adventure that is self-employment. We started with one employee. This colleague, Roel van Dijk, is, incidentally, still working with us to this day, and we are very happy and proud of that. Together, we got off to a flying start, which meant we were soon looking for a second colleague for our Business Travel department.
Business travel
Every day, our Business Travel consultants work to transport business travellers (from over 250 companies that are our clients) to their destinations in the most efficient way. They look for a good hotel at the destination and arrange any necessary transport, restaurants, and other excursions for the duration of the business trip.
What started as an idea has now grown into two wonderful companies with over 40 colleagues. We have offices in Rotterdam, Goes and Arnhem.
GoMICE
To make the distinction clearer between our business trips and our group trips, we have started goMICE. MICE stands for: Meetings, Incentives, Concepts and Events.
Annually, we organise approximately 350 group trips that relate to meetings, incentive travel, events, and conferences., Sports holidays, training camps and Business club travel. With connections all over the world, no location is too much of a stretch. Before our clients travel themselves, we always carry out an inspection trip ourselves. We check everything, manage procurement in-house, and arrange things on location. If desired, we can also travel along as chaperones. You can read a report of such a trip in my blogs about the pre-inspection in Lisbon and the Group trip to Lisbon.
Now that our paths have crossed via this blog, you might like to know more about our travels. Curious about how we can be of service to you? Then quickly Contact Meet us for an introductory chat!