Owner, Executive Marketing Inc.
I am a graduate of the Fanshawe College Travel Program. I worked in the wholesale travel industry before falling into the MICE industry.
My career in the MICE industry started at Dimensional Travel Incentives as an Account Executive in 1987. All the skills and experience I had from the wholesale industry, was a perfect fit for the MICE industry, from planning the tours, negotiating with suppliers, costing, managing customer service, and selling the tours…all skills that were part of the job requirements at Dimensional. In 1987 the industry was really referred to as group travel. MICE was in its infancy, and clients were not as educated as they are now. There was no access to Internet or email. Business was done by Phone and Fax. I worked on the launch of one of the first Fax machines for Canon Canada.
I was one also of the first female Account Executives that was married and had kids. Two weeks after my first kid was born, I was advised that Dimensional had been sold. I had a program about to be operated so I decided to setup a home office, hire a nanny and manage the program from my home, as the staff were not transitioning to the new company. This was my client, so I needed to ensure the program was completed on time and on budget.
3 months later I moved to the Wynford group where I stayed for 9 years as an Account Executive and then a Sales Consultant. I incorporated Eventive Marketing in 1999 and worked as a Sales Consultant. When Wynford got too large, I moved my clients to Venture Planning which subsequently became Debut. My vision was always to provide each client with a customized event. Attention to detail and being hands on with the design of the event was extremely important. Cookie cutter was never in my vocabulary.
I decided in 2007 that it was time to be in my own office space and operate under my own company. This just happened to be the same timing as the start of the recession! With loyal clients who trusted in my ability, I closed $1million worth of business in 6 months. I hired a program manager to work with me, whom I had known previously, and we worked endless hours to produce quality events and the referrals have kept on coming. The business has grown and Eventive now has a staff of 8 employees.
