Wednesday, July 30, 2008

So coincidence does exist

If possible, each year I go to Marrakesh for a couple of days. This year I got the opportunity to see the Festival National des Arts Populaires, a very musical and particularly colourful festival that’s held in the historic Badii Palace. And before I left I was racking my brains over a DMC I know in Marrakesh. “How on earth could I have forgotten that name,” I thought. “Oh well, I’ll suddenly remember it,” I kept on pondering. Right before I entered the Atlas Blue airplane, I made a final attempt to reproduce his name. Unfortunately, I couldn’t. Nothing left then but walk directly to seat 12A and hope that the airplane oxygen would tickle my brain during the flight. The good thing about a flight to Morocco is that you nearly always have the opportunity to sit in the business class of economy class: the emergency exit class! I was in luck, two seats next to each other - 12A and B - with a lot of leg room and no one to bother me. That’s wonderful, flying cheap and chic! And who’s sitting there next to me, yes, who...? Essaid Faiq of Exclusively Morocco, a name that sounds like poetry to many Belgian incentive organisers. Essaid is an extraordinary DMC. A large part of the three-hour flight to Casablanca was spent exchanging thoughts about the relationship Incentive Organiser - DMC, a theme that doesn’t occur enough in conversations, in my opinion. What did I remember? A DMC must be able to take a beating and he especially needs to be a guardian angel. Essaid has these qualities to a high degree. Do the incentive bureaus agree?

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