Wednesday, September 16 | 56 days until the conference| 231 registrations

When Victor arrived at the office the next morning, Casper and Catja were busily engaged in conversation. Victor greeted them with a cheerful ‘Goooooood morning Vietnam!’

           The two looked at him blankly.

           ‘Good morning, Vietnam? The movie from the eighties?’ asked Victor. ‘Must be before your time, never mind.’

           Pooky greeted him with happy wheek.

           He stuck a piece of chicory through the bars of the cage and lowered himself onto his desk chair. It seemed as though his office looked different, more organized somehow.

           On his desk were yesterday’s handouts. The AIDA+S model, the five Ls, tips for interesting messages in the run-up to a conference; someone had printed everything out and put it there. Undoubtedly Catja.

           Fifteen minutes later he had gone through all of them. They could start this today, he concluded.

           As soon as Martine was in, he invited everyone into his office.

           ‘How many registrations are we on now, Casper?’ he asked.

           ‘231.’

           The number didn’t surprise him, although he kept hoping there would suddenly be some kind of social media miracle. At this rate they were never going to make a thousand. They had a decent reach, but the registrations were far behind schedule. Also, the video didn’t get them quite as much attention as they had expected. In two days, he had to report back to Jacques again, and he felt a little nauseous at the mere thought of having to lie again. There was no more room for hesitation or doubt. Their existence was on the line and time was running out.

....

----

Written by Gerrit Heijkoop & Paula Vos

 Narrated by Kevin Stillwell