Sometimes I’m wondering what happened to 2011. Where did it go? What has happened during these 365 days?

It all started in London of course, when I was still working with Ernst & Young. But I was also applying for another job, since I found out that the future that Ernst & Young had in mind for me (which is, actually, a good future) wasn’t my piece of cake. That’s how I came in contact with my current employer, VisitDenmark. On April 1st, I wasn’t fooled but I got an amazing call saying: we’de like to have you on board, could you start as of May 1st? (don’t think it’s so easy to find a job, my first contact with VisitDenmark was already end of January :-p).

With my new job I’ve entered an entire new world, meeting lots of fun and inspiring people.  I also got to know a new city (Copenhagen), which is very easy to fall in love with quickly. I’ve also been to Aarhus one time last September and this week I was in Vejle, but there I haven’t seen much more than the hotel I was staying in :-p. You often hear that Dutch and Danes feel rather close connected to each other, in the way we live, communicate and do business. One thing we can definitely learn from the Danes is their sustainable mindset, it’s amazing to see and read about what they do to decrease their energy consumption.

Unfortunately 2011 hasn’t been a very good year for my gospel choir Reflection in Utrecht. It’s very difficult to find new members, both for the choir and the band. Maintaining members is also a challenge; it feels that being an active member of an association is just not as common anymore as it used to be 10 years ago. Next to that it’s rather hard to find new places to perform, lots of churches also have to cut on expenses and rather create their own little band then hiring somebody. We’ll see what 2012 will bring, maybe the new board members will be full of unexpected ideas .

There are a million other things to tell about 2011, but at some point you should start focusing on the future and see what kind of exciting things the new year has in store for you.