News
Manchester, United Kingdom — 22-25 September 2009WYSE Archives
Celebrating 20 years of inspiring people to go further
This year at Smaller Earth, we have reached a significant milestone as we celebrate our 20th year in business; which means 20 years of sending people from all over the world on life-changing cultural exchange programmes. In our first year of business, we sent 34 people to work at camp in the USA but our ambition to grow the business has resulted in 2019 being a record-breaking year that has seen us send over 10,000 participants on cultural exchange opportunities all over the world; our most successful year ever.
To celebrate, we’re excited to be holding a global conference at Shrigley Hall in Cheshire, England where we look forward to welcoming our trusted partners and staff from 13 countries to reconnect at our gala dinner and 3-day conference. The conference theme will be ‘celebrate and strive’, with a focus on staff self-development and empowerment through sessions and workshops.
Smaller Earth CEO, Bastian Weinberger commented on what the anniversary means to him and what the future holds for the business. ‘I am incredibly proud of how far we have come over the past 20 years and it is a great honour to celebrate this milestone with our key partners and full-time staff from around the world. This also provides an excellent opportunity to outline our ambitions and vision for the future. Whilst we will take time out to celebrate, we will also work hard to ensure we not only maintain, but further increase and improve the exceptional customer journey and high quality meaningful cultural exchange programs we have become known for.’
From the start of our journey in 1999, we have come a long way. Having been to camp in the USA our co-founders, Dave Robinson and Chris Arnold returned home to Liverpool with a feeling that participants needed more help, support and a higher level of customer service and care. From this feeling of wanting to do things better; Camp Leaders was born, with the aim of providing participants with a fully supported journey from start to finish.
We’ve grown into a trusted and well-known leader in the youth travel industry, and have innovated and diversified over time with 13 global offices around the world and a variety of programmes on offer. Our other programmes include Camp Canada, Adventure China, Resort Leaders, AuPair abroad, TEFL and Rainbow Garden Village. Each of our brands are united under the Smaller Earth banner – allowing us to define our daily work by our common purpose, vision, and values.
Despite differences in background, brand, and location, our 200+ Smaller Earth staff across the world are united in our shared goal of inspiring people to go further and we owe our success to each individual who helps drive Smaller Earth forward with their passion and excellence displayed daily. We’ve helped thousands of people achieve their work and travel dreams – and although we’re a forward-thinking organisation, we know how important it is to pause, take a look back, and appreciate everything that we’ve accomplished in the last 20 years.
Learn more about Smaller Earth, our vision and the programmes we offer by visiting www.smallerearth.com