Thank you to SITE member Raymon Honings for encouraging the future growth our industry by inspiring two students from a Dutch university to join other emerging and long-time incentive industry professionals at SITE Global Conference this year.

Here with their unique perspective on the conference are those students, Amber and Megan Schouten. Thanks to both of you as well for sharing the insights below with us!

We are Amber and Megan Schouten (not related but just happen to have the same last name). We are 3rd/4th-year tourism students from the Netherlands.

From the 17th until the 20th of February, we went to SITE Global New York with the University of Applied Sciences Inholland and Travelmediate.

We won a scholarship during the minor Business Travel & Incentives [to attend]. We had to put together a trip with the program TripCreator to win this amazing opportunity.

This was the first time that we went to a SITE conference. We had an amazing trip, and we connected with a lot of people. This way we got to know the incentives industry better.

One thing we noticed was that we were the only students at the conference. Therefore, we would love to connect tourism students more with SITE and with the incentives world.

If we could be a CEO for SITE, we would like to change this. We would like to involve more students in this amazing industry but also, to make sure they become more aware of this industry.

This industry is full of opportunities, and it is such a pity that most tourism students aren’t really aware of this.

During this conference, we were surprised that everyone was so friendly and appreciative. Everyone was open to a conversation and to hearing our story/opinion.

We also had an eye-opening conversation with [SITE CEO] Annette Gregg, where we gained a lot of insights — especially about being a woman in this industry.

We didn’t expect to see this many people at the conference because it is such a niche market, and we didn’t know much about it. But boy, fun it was!

We are looking back with big smiles on this wonderful trip, and we will take this experience with us for the rest of our life.

If you (as a reader) have any questions for us please let us know and feel free to contact us!

You can find Amber on LinkedIn here, and Megan on LinkedIn here.