September 11 Attacks: 17 Years On

Read this outstanding piece written by Peter Field, CEO of the Risk Waters Group, who was on his way to the World Trade Center as the September 11 attacks transpired. Peter briefly brings to life all sixteen staff members who lost their lives that day. 

Victor Anderson, current editor of Waters magazine, wrote the piece below on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.  

It seems like yesterday that the world changed forever at 8.46 AM on that crystal-clear Tuesday morning in downtown Manhattan.

The Waters staff have, naturally, discussed the events of that day, given Waters’ poignant association with September 11, even though our youngest staff member hadn’t even started high school at the time. But the families of the 16 Risk Waters staff members who lost their lives that day, will find little consolation in the knowledge that, as a group, we have spoken about their loved ones, and, while we might not know them, they have been in our thoughts in the lead up to every anniversary of the day their lives were turned upside down.

On early Thursday morning on the 10^th anniversary of the attacks, as I was readying myself to leave the house and make my way to work, I briefly watched a BBC interview with Margaret (Maggie) Owen, the mother of Melanie de Vere, one of the Risk Waters “16”. For me, the interview “particularized” for the first time in years the emotional devastation of those caught up in the attacks, poignantly conveyed by a mother longing for her daughter, about whom people still talk.

In the days and weeks following “that Tuesday,” resolutions were made and “bucket lists” compiled, but as is so often the case after an emotionally charged episode, we find it all too easy to slip back into normality, fixating on the trivialities of the day-to-day grind, blissfully ignorant of the bigger picture, revealed fleetingly during those flashes of intense, yet infrequent, introspection.

Perhaps now, on the anniversary of that dreadful day, it is time to revisit those resolutions and actually eat with the good cutlery rather than just talking about it? Perhaps now is the time to follow through on those plans to climb that mountain, to serve in that soup kitchen during the festive season, and to enhance those relationships with our significant others?

From all of us at Waters, to all of you: We’re thinking of you at this time.

Victor Anderson, editor-in-chief.

We remember our friends and colleagues who lost their lives in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Sarah Ali Escarcega

Freelance Marketing Consultant

Oliver Bennett

Staff Writer, Risk

Paul Bristow

Senior Conference Producer

Neil Cudmore

Sales Director, Waters

Melanie de Vere

Publisher, Waters Reference Products

Michele du Berry

Director of Conferences

Elisa Ferraina

Senior Conference Sponsorship Coordinator

Amy Lamonsoff

Conference Coordinator, North America

Sarah Prothero

Conference Operations Manager

David Rivers

Editorial Director, New York

Laura Rockefeller

Freelance Delegate Coordinator

Karlie Rogers

Divisional Sponsorship Manager

Simon Turner

Board Director

Celeste Victoria

Conference Telesales Executive

Joanna Vidal

Events Coordinator

Dinah Webster

Head of North American Sales

We also remember our 65 colleagues from the industry who attended the Waters conference in the World Trade Center as delegates, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors.