Curriculum Vitae of a 'Founding Father'

Marcel A. M. Vissers

Owner / Business Manager of Meeting Media Company
Niche MICE (meetings industry) publishers (MIM magazine and HeadQuarters Magazine) since 1992.
Editor in chief of MIM and HQ magazines

Born in Zundert (NL) on May 4th 1946
Became Belgian very quickly and remained like that.

Primary and secondary school in Belgium
First finished higher education at the Teachers' Training College in Brussels
Teached for a couple of years
Completed further higher studies at the Social College in Leuven, specialising in Personnel sciences and afterwards specialising in industrial psychology and Human Resources Management with Professor Musschoot at the RUG

A small portion of my free time during studies was spent on radio plays for the then BRT Radio. Actually I had always wanted to become an elocutionist or presenter or at least to succeed in broadcast journalism… but it turned out otherwise. I ended up in print journalism and the talking still comes in handy when I chair debates or panels or when I give lectures. Now I have to get my leisure time out of 'travelling' (work) and 'going to the gym' (work out).

After completing my studies I immediately found a job in the business community. At first as a Human Resources employee at the AZ Leuven, and later as HR-Manager at Pleuger in Antwerp, followed by Intop in Brussels. In that latter company (the Inter Touroperaters Group) I took the initiative to participate in the 'Golden Feather' competition for the best sales letter with a newly formed team for incentive travels. And indeed, in 1979 the Golden Feather was awarded to the Intop Firm in Brussels. That was the last sign of life of that company but it was also my first step towards journalism. First I made a halt in Sierra Leone (West-Africa) for a year to kick the habit of working every day with and for people.

After the demise of Intop I have applied myself almost fulltime to the development of media for meetings and incentive travel. Twenty years ago there were practically no specialised magazines in this area - all magazines were primarily oriented towards tourism. That's how in 1991 I stood at the basis of the first fully fledged MICE magazine with the title Meeting Media. You could say I feel a bit like the 'founding father' of Belgian MICE journalism (meetings and incentive travel industry).

Meeting Media later became Meeting & Incentive Media and is now fully known and put on the market as MIM magazine, which has become a ‘brand’ in the European specialised media landscape: www.mimmagazine.be


In 2002 Marcel A.M. Vissers started a new magazine: HeadQuarters Magazine. This magazine has grown in a short timespan to be the leading Pan-European magazine for Association Executives: www.headquartersmagazine.com


Contact:
Meeting Media Company
Mechelseplein 23
B-2000 Antwerpen (Belgium)

Tel. +32 (0)3 226 88 81
Fax. +32 (0)3 226 88 82
Mobile: +32 486 13 13 00
info@meetingmedia.be
www.meetingmedia.be