Running their company, raising their twins, and spending days on the beach – events specialists Victoria and Simon Bruce Miller love New Zealand. Words Mic Dover
Victoria and Simon Bruce-Miller live in Nelson, at the top of New Zealand’s South Island with their three-year-old twins Walter and Katolo. Their life now is a far cry from their days as two singles working long hours in the London events management sector.
“Looking back it was a rat race,” says Victoria. “And the endless motorway driving seems like a long forgotten bad dream now!”
The couple’s life in New Zealand couldn’t be more different – their work-life balance involves being part time parents and part time business people – all sandwiched between twice-daily trips to the nearby beach.
Victoria and Simon met in 2001 when Simon joined Victoria as an employee of London-based Compass Group Hospitality, an events management outfit handling major UK events including Wimbledon, the Hampton Court Flower Show, the British Open Golf Championship, the Paris and Farnborough Air Shows and Henley Regatta.
Simon arrived in London with a globetrotting background. Apart from his schooling in Somerset, he had an itinerant childhood following his father’s career through countries as diverse as Zaire, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Turkey, Finland, Uzbekistan and China. In the late 1990s, after graduating from Brighton University in International Tourism Management, he was looking to get into the events management industry. While considering the possibilities of the African safari lodge sector, Simon travelled to the UK to earn some cash, when the Compass Group opportunity arose.
Future wife Victoria was already working at Compass, having graduated from Bournemouth University in Hospitality Management. One day in 2001, Victoria remembers, “I came back to the office from being away at one of our events and there was this unknown upstart using my desk – I didn’t take to him at all!”
But the ice melted and Victoria and Simon found they liked each other a lot – a relationship soon began and they married in 2005. They also realised that their professional relationship had become very valuable.
Read their full story in the January 2010 issue of Living Abroad magazine
