Iceland strikes again

Can destinations hold a grudge? Possibly.

Three years ago we delivered an incentive to Iceland that was ravaged by a huge storm that continued throughout the entire weekend. It was a great trip which has now become the stuff of meteorological legend within the client’s industry sector.

Fast forward three years to April 15th this year when the same client and customers were due to depart Heathrow for an incentive weekend of Fast Cars and Speedboats in Monaco.

Iceland then dumps a cloud of volcanic ash over the whole of Europe and all flights were grounded!

This time though the group had not even made it to the plane. A ‘war room’ was quickly established (in ‘The 5 Tuns Pub) in T5 as alternative means of travel were explored. Once it became clear that no flights would be departing the good old event insurance, suggested by FMI, came into effect and the majority of the group then returned home. However, three people had flown to Heathrow from Guernsey and therefore needed to get home again without the aid of flight technology. Quick calls were made to ferry ports, tickets for the next day secured, hotels for overnight accommodation booked and chauffeur driven cars pulled in immediately to send the guys on the way (another reason to use an agency).

So now we regroup for a rearranged event in September. But there has been talk in corridors about what Iceland is planning this time to stymie the event. Fishing fleet blockade of Monte Carlo, giant geyser spurt causes floods all over Europe or the launch of another ‘too-good-to-be-true’ savings account? Leave us alone, for God’s sake.