Bruno, DMC: “creativity makes you dream, rigour keeps you standing”
“In our trade, creativity makes you dream, but rigour keeps you standing.” Bruno, who runs Shak'Heart Events and R-Evolution (Colombia, Cuba), talks about the field, his tribe of a team and his encounter with TOOGO.
Who are you?
Talking about yourself is never an easy exercise… I'm Bruno, a field man who has spent his life sending others travelling and rallying teams around projects that resonate. My journey took me from Lille to Lyon, by way of Alsace and the Jura, then all the way to Cuba and Colombia, where I learned resourcefulness, human warmth and the strength of the collective. There, I found a family of the heart: some have worked with me for more than twenty years and shaped, with great humility, the way I grasp what truly matters.
Creative, a little off the wall, with an idea at every breath, I can move from one concept to the next like moving from one country to another, with the energy of someone who always wants to go further. It could tend to wear my team out, but it's my team that stimulates me, that channels me, that turns creative chaos into solid projects… It's our closeness that keeps the machine running, our trust that moves ideas forward.
The advantage of the “old pirates” is having woven, over the years, strong ties with our clients and suppliers, but also with many other players in tourism: professional relationships that became human, respectful, sometimes friendly. Along the way, the EDV (the French travel-agent association) taught me solidarity, responsibility and the importance of standing together in a market in almost perpetual change.
In reality, Shak'Heart Events (in France) — R-Evolution Colombia and R-Evolution Cuba (on the ground) — is exactly that: a passion that never fades, a demand for quality, and the desire to make projects vibrate as much as the people who live them.
How does TOOGO fit into your daily work?
TOOGO — after testing various tools that didn't meet our needs, we had the opportunity to work with TOOGO, software genuinely designed for DMCs, for once. Since what drives the agency is a free spirit, we need tools that structure, that frame, that make the team more efficient. Today, our clients want pace, precision, fast answers. For that, you need flexible, reliable solutions, able to channel energy and turn our intuitions into concrete action.
Once the implementation and the input are done (which takes a certain amount of time, but it's a necessary step), you quickly realise the tool is ergonomic, intuitive and fairly easy to get to grips with. A clear, fast, efficiency-oriented interface: a quote that, with Excel-type tools, could take several hours now only takes a few minutes.
What's more, once the workflow is perfectly defined, the software “forces” every team member to work the same way, which means you can step into a file started by another team member with no difficulty understanding it, and therefore stay efficient in any situation.
What do you particularly value in the TOOGO team or in our collaboration?
Because the tool was designed for and by people from the DMC world, that's where TOOGO makes the difference. Their support is simple, direct, human. The team knows our organisation's specific needs perfectly. The TOOGO team has that rare ability to turn our needs into concrete solutions. They also know how to identify technical constraints and explain them to us with a lot of patience. And one of the key points: the team is highly available.
What advice would you give another DMC?
Even for a small structure like ours, you shouldn't underestimate the power of a clear, centralised, well-structured tool. In our trade, creativity makes you dream, but rigour keeps you standing. The specific features and constraints of the DMC business have been experienced and therefore identified, analysed, and then turned into solutions built into TOOGO — software that is, moreover, constantly evolving, and we're well aware we only use a small part of its features…
If you really want to see what TOOGO can do for you, just take a moment to talk with their team. Not a “corporate” meeting, no: a real conversation where you explain how you work, what exhausts you, what saves you time, and what drives you crazy. That time, you'll probably get back exponentially. Personally, what I liked is that they don't sell a ready-made solution: they look for how to help you work faster, clearer, smoother. In short: take an hour now, it's free until then… and you'll probably gain ten tomorrow.
A fun fact about me?
My professional and personal life has always been set to a soundtrack. Not the showbiz kind, not the glitter, but the music of unlikely encounters that turn your heart over without warning. Utterly wild moments with Elton John, Raul Paz, Olivia Ruiz, Juanito, Kiko and Mario from the Gipsy Kings, and what can I say about Toques del Río, a band so crazy you'd think they play to save the planet with every riff.
But what struck me about them wasn't the stage. It was their humanity. Their simplicity. Their way of being truly beautiful people, “buenas personas” as they say over there. And yet… without falling into pathos… the most beautiful people I've met are other artists: the men and women of my team.
Without any flattery, since 2006 they have survived the ideas, the swerves, the uncontrollable external constraints — health, climate, geopolitics. What we share goes far beyond the professional. It's a tribe of the heart, something that can't be explained but is lived — through the storms, the fits of laughter, the sleepless nights, and the projects that are bigger than us.