By Allan Maurer
ORLANDO, FL –Mark Thomason, co-founder of iConvene, caught the travel bug while in the Navy from 1980 through 1986, as his ship pulled into ports along the Western Pacific, stopping in Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Tahiti, and “beautiful Bahrain in the Persian Gulf.”
Thomason co-founded iConvene with David Krinker in 2006 because they faced difficulties setting up meeting venues for their respective non-profit organizations as easily as they could do many other things online, notes that he can schedule worldwide travel on the Web, but getting a meeting set up down the street with speakers, entertainment, and catering could be a hassle.
That worldwide travel has been a feature of Thomason’s life. In his navy years, he says visiting Australia was like stepping out of a time machine into another era. “You pulled into Brisbane and it was like going back in time to the 1950s when I was a kid,” says Thomason. “They rolled up the streets at five and the pubs were open, but nothing much else was.”
In Singapore, he says, “The country was pristine, clean.”
He also enjoyed the haggling in Asian markets. “In America,” he says, “you see a price, that’s what you pay. In Asia, the price is just a starting point and you negotiate from there. The better you are at negotiating, the better price you get.”
Thomason left the navy in 1986 and returned to Orlando where he worked with Continental Testing Labs, which tested parts for the military and space industries. “We baked parts, froze them, did all sorts of mean things to inanimate objects to make sure they would still work in space,’ he says.
After four years he joined a small electronics company that after being purchased eight times morphed into Symantec. “A long time ago, when it was just a small company, I worked on a product that’s now worth over $500 million in revenue,” he says.
Thomason left Symantec in 2005, and looking for a place to work, did not find anything that really appealed to him, so he changed gears and looked for something he could start himself.
Thomason, 45, married his second wife, Cynthia, 42, in Sienna, Italy. He recalls a wonderful evening in Italy when he and Cynthia bought bread, wine and cheese from local merchants in a walled city, then sat on a bench by a walnut grove and watched the sun set. “You could hear people and farm sounds, tractors, animals. It was very peaceful and was like being taken to a different time and place,” he says.
Not everything was peaceful, however. A couple attempted to pick Thomason’s pocket, but his wife intervened between the woman and man while Thomason grabbed the would-be thief’s hand. Both Thomason and Cynthia had taken Kung Fu lessons, and it must have shown, because the thieves retreated. “Nothing was stolen, but that was the biggest thrill from a negative point of view,” he says.
On another European trip, Thomason and Cynthia joined the oldest couple in their group, a 72-year-old man and a 69-year-old woman to paraglide over Austrian mountains. Thomason says the Austrians cleverly cloak signs of human infrastructure, coloring high-tension wires and structures green and hiding stations in what appear to be houses. “When you’re up high, you don’t see the human infrastructure,” he says. “All you see is the valley and the beauty of nature all around you.”
Another feature of Thomason’s travels is his penchant for diving, which he has been doing since his navy years. In particular, he enjoyed wall diving off Honduras. Wall diving means descending off the steep decline of the continental shelf, which falls precipitously and offers a plethora of marine life to observe. “We did our homework first, particularly in terms of what not to touch,” he says.
Thomason says that the whole idea of travel for him centers on “experiencing different feelings. “I want to feel what it’s like to live there,” he says. “I’m not eating ants and scorpion brains. But the big thing I like to do is experience what different places are like.”
One of the chief lessons his travels imparted, he says, is that “People are alike everywhere. They just do different things.”
Also, he says, when you go to Europe or Asia, “They’ve had their cultures much longer than we have. They have learned to strike a balance with nature. Many countries seem to place a higher value on natural resources because they’re limited. You go to England, the city starts, the country ends. Here, we have so much, we don’t manage it as well as other countries.”
His company, iConvene, is located in the University of Central Florida Technology Incubator, a highly competitive program that provides early-stage companies with the tools and infrastructure needed to create financially stable companies that contribute to the local economy.
Following its launch in Central Florida, iConvene will expand to other major U.S. markets within a year, as well as hire about 15 new people, including software developers, Internet marketing specialists and call center employees. The company is seeking a $1.5 million round.
On the Web: www.iconvene.com
Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org
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