Internations Meetings

 

 

 

Meeting 1- Palace D’Anfa- A bit boring

Meeting 2- Sofitel- Great Event

Meeting 3- Hyatt Regency Lounge- Good Event

This past meeting at the Hyatt Regency was a nice mix of people coming from Turkey, London, US, Russia, India, Dubai, and of course Morocco. There were a few familiar faces from the previous event and I met with my Russian friend, Natalie, and another couple Moroccan friends.
As usual, I made my rounds and met a nice guy from Turkey who is starting his own English school over here and opening a hotel in Casablanca. I also met Dr. Ali is from Saudi Arabia, but lives in West Virginia.  He also works with establishing connections between US and Moroccan universities-two great people to meet.

When speaking with another business guy, Moroccan and lived in USA attending Purdue University, he informed me about the Microsoft party happening next door. Immediately, I thought about all the perfect business men of Casablanca (business thinks business)-what a place to network.  I had pretty much said my hellos and made an appearance at Internations and it was time to check out this big Microsoft event.

I walked in and saw a whole new Casablanca-men dressed in beautiful suits and women looking beautiful (still not on the fashion 100 percent). In Morocco, it is truly the men who have the fashion sense and know how to dress for the occasion or just everyday.

While there were many good looking men, it was not my focus as all I thought was “networking and business English contacts.” The setting could not have been more perfect. My new friend introduced me to a few people and I gave out my card to a handful of people. I still felt the “Casablanca fake syndrome”, which means that people were a bit arrogant, superficial, and ingenuine.  This “Casablanca fake syndrome” presents itself when you are hanging out in the “scene of Casa.”

Most of the time, I just sat and smiled and laughed at people’s jokes and spoke a little bit of Arabic. It was a nice social and nice for people watching and a few contacts for business. They had a great live band from Mali who were playing the bongos and singing and I enjoyed the deserts consisting of a ten layer chocolate cake. While people were drinking, I was sipping on an Oulmes.  It is great having absolutely no interest in drinking and just observing those around me.  I was content with the chocolate cake and the Zwin men walking around=)

                      A Good International and Local Night In Casablanca

 

The Microsoft Cake-delicious