Anja D’Hondt and Benoit Cornet forge partnership with newly founded BoldMove Nation

Brussels, Belgium, 4 February 2021 – To firm up and seal their current cooperation, Benoit Cornet and Anja D’Hondt are founding a dedicated company: BoldMove Nation BV, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Their career paths crossed at several occasions, starting out as colleagues at an Israeli tech company in the nineties. “An amazing and unique experience” they both call it.  The past five years they enjoyed the ride in building a global reputation for Benoit’s company. Now they formally re-unite as shareholders with an active management role in BoldMove Nation. Their alliance underlines the company’s commitment to collaboration, creativity and innovation with a strong customer focus and industry engagement. Benoit calls their partnership Yin & Yang, complementing each other and making the sum far stronger than the individual parts, which has not gone unnoticed in the industry during the past corona year.

Benoit has built over 20 years of expertise in the entertainment market as CEO and Founder of a leading interactive dark ride company. With his team he built globally hundreds of rides and pioneered rotating theatres and erratic rides, hereby applying the most advanced technologies, and winning numerous prestigious industry awards. As CEO and Captain of Creative Minds at BoldMove Nation, he can now fully deploy his market vision in a creative and independent manner with trusted industry partners. Benoit also continues as active TEA Board Member in support of the entertainment industry. “It’s heart-warming to see so many talented people turn to BoldMove Nation and help us craft the modern, inspiring and media-based attractions this industry needs to thrive and secure its future, both in Europe and Asia. It allows us to combine and develop the most advanced technologies, the most inspiring IPs and most fun ride concepts for each application or venue. I’m really excited and there is still so much up our sleeve…”

Anja brings over two decades of PR and team management expertise to the company. She founded and run an international B2B tech PR agency during 16 years with clients likeKodak, HP, Ricoh, Pentax, and many others. After selling the agency, she started working as PR Strategist with her PR agency Flower & Feet, and supported Benoit’s previous company in building an unseen reputation.  As Queen of Happy Hearts and Managing Partner of BoldMove Nation, she ensures all creative ideas get implemented through a collaborative and engaging approach. “My industry PR highlights have been the international press launches of two interactive dark rides, working closely with journalists, fans, industry partners and customers of the regional parks. With BoldMove it’s amazing what we have achieved over such a short period. I am meeting great people and learn all about ride concepts and processes, developing products, framing it all into a strong business and PR strategy.”

BoldMove Creates Happy Houba World
A great example of what BoldMove Nation can accomplish with its partners is Houba World, recently launched and successfully merging creativity, IP and technology. In close collaboration with IP License Owner Mediatoon, a happy Houba World has been created around the Marsupulami characters. The all-family indoor park is centered around the temple-themed Smash & Reload compact dark ride, and offers a mix of media-based and fun attractions. VR and AR technologies are driving an Escape Room, Racing Challenge and AR Egg Hunt across the premises.

Houba World makes people dream and immerse them into the exotic world of the Marsupilami family. This strong and colourful IP is grateful to bring attractions alive so kids, teenagers and families feel truly part of the adventure. Climbing the rocks and nest, exploring the temple and riverside with VR tracks, visiting the 4D cinema and many other thrill experiences. All gameplays and attractions are kept simple and easy to understand for young and old so everyone can feel part of the friendly Marsupilami family in their exotic forest environment.  

Houba World can be built adjacent to an existing location like a shopping mall, cinema or FEC. But it can also be easily integrated into a destination park, regional park or zoo to attract visitors on rainy days. The mix of attractions perfectly allows for a hybrid indoor/outdoor approach and obviously adds great flexibility and scalability. Every aspect of the center has been thought through to allow a smooth and extensive operation, whatever the time of the day or the week. A center can be constructed from 800sqm to complement an existing facility, up to around 3000sqm as a stand alone version. Besides attracting more visitors to nearby facilities and raising income from entry tickets, venue and park owners also benefit from an elaborate merchandising offer of over 500 SKUs. 

(c) 2021 Dargaud-Lombard SA (IP)  
(c) 2021 BoldMove-Nation (Image Renderings)