Gene Young liked his British co-workers at Risk Waters Group.
Even though he was on a temporary contract through an agency the staff of the London -based firm had made the 20-year-old freelance marketer feel welcome.
His job, cold-calling finance professionals and encouraging them to sign-up to attend a two-day conference - the company's first - could be intimidating.
So he was thankful to be sat one cubicle down from Sarah Ali-Escarcega, an enthusiastic South Londoner who was always there to help.
Sarah, like Gene, had not long moved to New York, and she was throwing herself into life in the business capital of the world.
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“She was a newlywed [and had] moved over here to start a new life,” Gene told MyLondon.
“She said that she wanted [a career] in finance and that in America there were opportunities.”
One of these was the conference she and Gene were promoting; a financial technology event held on the 106th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Centre.
Having spent several months working to fill the room with delegates, Sarah intended to make the most of the opportunity to network with them.
Temporary staff, like Gene’s, contracts ended with the start of the event on September 11, however they had been offered extra money to set up and break down the rooms.
Sarah encouraged him to seize the opportunity, but Gene was reluctant.
“This is more of a temp job for me. I moved to New York to be a photographer,” he told her.
“Well, you know, this is a media company so they can surely use photos,“ she replied. “Why don't you come? I can introduce you to people.”
He decided not to go. It saved his life.
The next morning Gene was woken by his roommate screaming.
He went to see what the fuss was about and saw to his horror the World Trade Centre building, where his colleagues were, had been hit by a plane.
“About an hour after the tower got hit, I got a phone call from the office manager,” Gene continued. “He said there's only a few people in the office, everybody else was at the Tower. But he had spoken to some people [in the World Trade Centre].”
The manager told Gene his colleagues had been too high up to be evacuated, but they might be able to escape via a helicopter on the roof. Anxiously he watched television pictures in the hope to see people being rescued, but as time went on it became clear there was no way they could have survived.
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In the two decades which followed, Gene has struggled with the survivor’s guilt of not being in the Twin Towers that day.
He often thinks of his British co-workers and feels bad about their loss.
“If I could have traded places with somebody, I definitely could and would have because the people that I worked with they [had] families [and] children. I was young,” he said.
That day 20 years ago remains a present as ever, Gene still hasn’t visited Ground Zero and is haunted by the trauma.
“It's definitely fresh. still seems like it just happened. The fact that it's been 20 years, I can't believe that time has passed,” he said.
A painful aspect of the passage of time is the effort it has on Gene’s memory of his co-workers like Sarah.
“The thing that is kind of hard to deal with as time passes is remembering their faces, [they] become more of a blur year after year.”
The story of the Risk Waters conference is sometimes lost in the coverage of 9/11, but it is one of the most heartbreaking.
A business event held by a small British publisher, hardly any of its attendees would have been in the Twin Towers in normal circumstances. Several would not even have been in the country.
The company was to lose 16 staff at the conference including seven Brits, a tenth of all the UK citizens who were killed in 9/11. They were all young people, five were in their thirties and the other two were 25 and 27.
Seventy one people who were attending the conference that day were also to lose their lives along with 72 staff working at the restaurant, Windows on the World, where the event was being held.
These are the stories of some of those who were caught up in the most tragic twists of fate.
The 29-year-old journalist
‘Return to London’ was the only thing written in Oli Bennett’s diary for the month of October 2001.
The 29-year-old had been enjoying a year living in New York, but he missed his friends in London and planned to go back.
His flat in the city was the archetypal New York dream pad, a loft apartment in Manhattan, which his friends and family loved visiting.
“He had a lovely year there,” his mother Joy Bennett told My London. “But it also sort of confirmed with him that all his friends were in London, he went to school in London and he was definitely coming back.”
However, before he left the financial journalist had been allocated to cover the Risk Waters conference in the Twin Towers on September 11.
He was looking forward to the event and was a fan of the venue, the Windows on the World restaurant which he’d taken his parents to on more than one visit.
Oli was well versed in conferences having originally started at Risk Waters in the events department.
He’d made the transition to financial journalist after his talent for writing was spotted by the editor Dwight Cass.
Making the leap from events to editorial is pretty unprecedented, but Oli, who had a degree in economics and psychology, was already establishing a strong reputation as a talented writer by Autumn of 2001.
Joy was in a local shop on the morning of 11 September when she saw television pictures of a plane hitting the Twin Towers.
“Gosh,” she said to another woman in the store, “I hope my son's not anywhere near that. He is in New York.”
She returned from the shops to some anxious calls from Oli’s brother Justin, who also lived in America.
“Where’s Oli?” he’d asked her.
“He's not answering his phone. I've left messages everywhere.”
Joy knew that Oli was attending a conference that day, but she had no idea it was in the Twin Towers.
Within a couple of hours it emerged that Oli had indeed been at an event there.
It must be heart-breaking to lose a loved one in a terrorist attack at their place of work. But the anguish of them being killed in a building they would never normally visit is difficult to comprehend.
“It’s horrid,” said Joy.
“It really was the wrong place at the wrong time. It wasn't his workplace at all.”
In the years that have passed Joy has formed bonds with many of the other parents of the 67 British victims, relationships developed from the shared experience of losing a child suddenly in the prime of their life.
“There were a lot of young people [who were killed], very few of middling age,” she continued.
“As parents we are much the same age as one another [in 2001 we were in] our 50s now we are in our 70s.”
Like Gene, the events of 11 September are still fresh in her mind and she can’t believe the time which has passed.
“To me it's honestly like it was yesterday, but it is a really long time,” she said.
“I remember saying to a therapist [after it happened]; ‘how am I going to live the next 25 years?’ And here we are at 20 years.”
The 31-year-old changing careers
Henry Young was supposed to be at the Risk Waters event on September 11.
He’d booked the ticket, but when one of his company’s New York-based customers suffered a problem with its IT systems, a colleague with greater technical expertise, Nick, was sent instead.
One person who would definitely be attending was Geoff Campbell, the younger brother of another of the owners; Matt.
Already based in New York the idea was for Geoff to head up a new office for the IT consulting firm.
Only a small business, with around 15 employees, the company was employed by the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to ensure the range of computer systems their traders used worked properly.
At that time this niche market had not been conquered by corporate giants like IBM or Microsoft and there were an array of tiny specialist firms helping blue chip clients with their technology systems.
The Waters magazine and newsletter, recently bought by investment banking title Risk, delivered the specialist news and analysis the community wanted.
Its events were a gathering of this cottage industry which served finance sector heavyweights.
The plan Henry and Matt had was to use the Waters event to help Geoff build links in the community ahead of him coming on board.
“One of the reasons for him going to this conference was to get him more immersed in our particular area, meet customers, suppliers and other people in our little world,” explained Henry.
“[The idea was Nick] would go to the conference and introduce Geoff to useful people.”
However, this plan was scuppered on the morning of the event when the client Nick had been helping had an urgent problem.
Rather than joining Matt at the Windows on the World venue he headed to see their customer.
It proved to be fateful. The towers were attacked and everyone at the event lost their lives.
“Unfortunately, Geoff proceeded to go and the rest is history,” added Henry.
Risk Waters staff lost in Twin Towers attack
Risk Waters lost nearly a tenth of its staff on 9/11. The company promised that these much loved friends and colleagues would not be forgotten and over the last 20 years kept their memories alive. You can find out more about this project including full tributes to the people who died here.
Sarah Ali-Escarcega had been working for the company for just two weeks when she died. Her sisters described her as their 'shining star' who 'touched so many lives with her magic'.
Oliver Bennett was 29. HIs family say they still miss him every day and have set up a charity in his memory.
Paul Bristow is remembered as a true team player who kept the office amused. He was engaged, living in New York and working as a conferences producer for the company.
Neil Cudmore was sales director for Waters Magazine and was 'admired by all who knew him'. His partner was Dinah Webster (see below) who also died in the Twin Towers attack.
Melanie de Vere was 'a great person with a fabulous smile' who had many dreams for the future. She was 30 years old and working as a publisher for Waters Reference Products.
Michèle du Berry (Beale) had joined the company at the end of 2000 and was director for conference and courses. A mum of two, she was 'approachable, funny and kind'.
Elisa Ferraina is remembered as 'smiling, laughing and like a whirlwind'. She was senior conferences sponsorship co-ordinator and much loved by her colleagues and clients.
Amy Lamonsoff had a smile 'so big it could light up the whole office.' Colleagues said that the most important thing to her was the people in her life - and that they felt lucky to have worked with her. She was working as an events manager when she died.
Sarah Prothero (Redheffer) is described as a 'tornado of energy and enthusiasm'. She was the company's conferences operation manager with a 'youthful and vibrant spirit'.
David Rivers was editorial director of Waters magazine, a 'whirlwind of energy' who shaped the voice and direction of the titles he worked on.
Laura Rockefeller was 'sweet, gentle and sincere'. She was working as a delegate co-ordinator but her great love was acting which she did part time.
Karlie Rogers (pictured) was 26, a young British woman working as divisional sponsorship manager. Colleagues described her as a 'shining star'. Her father said the world had been "robbed of 20 years of her beauty, mischievousness and just downright fun and love".
Simon Turner was 39 and about to become a father for the first time. He was publishing director and was hosting the World Trade Center conference. His wife Elizabeth says he loved life and everything it had to offer. She gave birth to their son on November 14, 2001.
Celeste Victoria was 'wonderful, unique and always happy'. She was a conference telesales executive and had made a huge impact on her colleagues.
Joanna Vidal 'radiated light' and 'exuded true warmth and humour'. She worked as an event co-ordinator and was just 26 when she died.
Dinah Webster was known for her professionalism, gift for friendship - and her cooking. An advertising manager, she was Risk Waters' longest-serving member of staff and the partner of Neil Cudmore. They met while working in Hong Kong and later moved to New York.
“[Had things been different] Nick could very well no longer be alive. Had our particular customer not had a random technical problem I could not be alive.
“I'm the kind of autistic and anal retentive person who makes sure I'm there early for a conference. So I would definitely have been caught up in it.”
Despite his sliding doors brush with death Henry doesn’t spend too much time reflecting on what could have been.
“It's just the randomness of life,” he added.
“There were too many other people who I knew of who lost their lives to afford one the opportunity to think; ‘there by the grace of God go I.’”
Did the way the world changed after 9/11 affect you? Contact zak.garnerpurkis@reachplc.com with your stories
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