How Disney's Glow Up agent winners wowed the judges

WINNER 1: CLAIRE BULLEN, HOMEWORKER, HAYS TRAVEL

Prize – workspace makeover

I currently work from my dining room table but the makeover will turn my spare bedroom into a gorgeous new office space. The room is grey, drab and boring with little light, and I can’t wait to inject some Disney magic into it!

I work inside all day long so I wanted an office that made me feel like I was working outside – the theme is going to be nature with lots of wood, greenery and colour, inspired by Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

I am still in my first year of working in travel so I haven’t had years of bookings, but I have booked four customers for Disney World Florida with Disney’s early booking offer. The majority of my customers who enquire about Disney are families but I am starting to see a lot of couples interested in Disney Cruise Line. I have been a few times myself to Walt Disney World, with the last visit in summer 2019. I can’t wait to go back with my family and see all of the new exhibitions that Disney have introduced. I am most looking forward to seeing the new Te Fiti exhibition at Epcot as that is what my vision board was based on.

I am going to be offering Facetime booking calls with my cool new office in the background to make my customers feel like they are already on their journey to Disney. I also have a pin badge swap and Wall of Fame planned to drive recognition of my business.

I was nervous when I learnt I would be presenting to Gok Wan and the Disney team but they all made me feel at ease, and hearing the praise and comments from Gok and all the others made me feel really good about my

presentation.

I am so overwhelmed at winning that I still can’t quite believe it. I never win anything! My Hays homeworking colleagues were so supportive and helped me throughout the process, sharing my video and listening to my ideas. 

I can’t wait for our shopping day that I have planned with the Disney team in August and to get my home office makeover completed. 

Winner 2: ZOE JONES, LINCOLN COOP

Prize – co-hosted event with Disney

We host a few small events a year in our store plus a cruise fair with other branches but that isn’t in our store, so as a branch we have never had the chance to do anything this big before. We could use the space outside our store in the town square for a bouncy castle and other eye-catching attractions that would lure people into our store. 

I chose a Magic Kingdom theme because that’s the first thing I think of when I think about Florida. It just looks like the happiest place. The pastel and glitter theme would bring the perfect magical/fairytale vibes to Lincoln.

I went with different “park areas” for my event mood board such as Main Street Bakery, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and a Cinderella Castle. I think it gives a good taste of what you can expect at a Disney park, minus the rides and parades. I’ve tried to offer something for everyone in the family – especially ways to keep children entertained while the parents get planning their dream holiday.

We book Disney every few weeks. I love getting the enquiries, they are so fun to work on. A lot of our Disney bookings tend to be larger groups of families. I was so nervous about the presentation day but was very happy to get good feedback from the judges. Gok Wan was so sweet and friendly, he really made me feel at ease.

My family have never been to Disney before so we are so excited. My little boy wakes up every morning and reminds me that we’re going to meet Mickey soon!

Winner 3: SHANNON JEACOCK, PERSONAL HOLIDAY ADVISOR, VIRGIN HOLIDAYS

Prize – co-hosted event with Disney

My theme was spooky Halloween, inspired by the new Disney adaptation of Haunted Mansion released this year. I don’t think Gok Wan and the Disney panel expected anyone to do dark Disney, but I love Halloween and I think if you can talk about something with passion, it tends to go down well.

I presented as Madame Leota from Haunted Mansion, pre-recording a video, using a filter I found on Instagram.

We’re a flagship store, based in Leeds White Rose Shopping Centre, and we’ll be able to work with the centre to amplify this event, for example, we could have a pumpkin trail through the centre, leading to the store.

We have a hidden cinema at the back of our store where we’ll be able to play the original Haunted Mansion, and also a bar, where I’d like to offer themed cocktails and mocktails.

We’ll also take inspiration from Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party for decorations. We can theme our children’s area and provide Halloween colouring books. We’re a really busy store for Disney, there’s at least a few enquiries every week and Disney’s special offers really help, so an event like this should definitely drive bookings when it’s posted on the centre’s social media pages.

I’ve already done Disneyland Paris and Disneyland in California, so I’m really looking forward to completing the trio with Florida!