No event ever goes off without a hitch, and sometimes those hitches are a bit more….terrifying… than others. What is just another day to some, could be the worst nightmare of another. In honor of Halloween, spooky season and things that scare humanity- here is a collection of the scariest events and situations we’ve been apart of.
Read on, if you dare…
Hurricane Sandy
In 2012, the east coast of the United States was battered and ravaged by Hurricane Sandy. You may have watched the destruction on the news, or frantically tried to get a hold of loved ones on the other side of the country. While most of us were safe, warm and dry, one of our team was on Pier 57 in New York City as the water levels rose and the city shut down…
Jeff (our resident IT & Tech guru) was working on an event that was billed as an ambitious "functional art and technology exhibit" , setting up and working with all the necessary technically equipment to ensure that everything went smoothly. This being NYC, the back rooms and hallways where Jeff was working to run network lines for hundreds of computers looked more like where serial killers would dump bodies than a glitzy venue.
Once the alerts for the hurricane were made- most of the attendees, vendors and staff got out of the venue and back to the hotels. Jeff stayed with some others to try and salvage as much of the tech as possible. The feeling of the pier swaying beneath their feet, keeping their balance off center- never quite settling or stopping to allow the team to collect themselves. They were working against the clock.
As the winds picked up enough to guide the swelling waves to crash against the windows of the venue, birds who were caught in the storm dashed against the glass, that’s when the rats appeared. Coming up from the lower levels that were now flooding or submerged, there were so, many, rats. You’ll never know true animalistic fear until the place you are standing has been deemed “NOT SAFE” by rats. A mass exodus of creatures that are determined to survive and thrive no matter what, that is the real horror. Shortly after the rats, the water followed into the event space. At that point, every human that was still there abandoned the items that were left and ran to shelter.
Jeff would be in NYC for the next few days, unable to get back home, but thankfully not alone. There were some sounds made for a slasher film and screaming out in the streets at nights. Obviously, it's best stay in your room and lock the doors, but sometimes you need to sit in the restaurant so you have safety in numbers. Power and water were out and the generators in the hotel died due to flood waters. After the first night the hotel started creating some insanely creative dinner menus to get rid of a lot of their perishable foods. Digestive tracks were also scared…
It took a long while, a harsh travel trip and a night spent on the floor of an airport lounge…but Jeff made it home in once piece! A few heart stopping thrills to remind us all that Mother Nature is the boss. She brought us into this world, and she can take us out.
The Show Must Go On
Many times- with scary stories, we imagine ourselves in the thick of it. At the center of the drama and at risk of losing everything. Adrenaline in your veins, survival-oriented mindset. But what about the aftermath of someone else’s horror story? After the initial terror, the people who come in to save the day, what about them…do they still need to worry?
Flash back to years ago- during a long-term trade show-…meaning the show floor was active for two weeks, so the entire production crew was there for a total of 4 -5 weeks (depending on the specific job). Imagine spending a month on a job site to build up, manage 2 weeks of attendees and then tear down again. Like most large-scale productions, there was catered meals for the team so they could eat on site and not have to leave.
A few days before the show was to open, a catastrophe struck in the form of food poisoning from the crew buffet! The chicken had somehow cross contaminated other items like the veggies and salad…no one was spared. Omnivores and vegetarians alike were struck down. High ranking executives there to oversee set up, the numerous crew responsible for physical construction, booth staff that would be the ones interacting with attendees, background support for all the tech that it takes to run hundreds of live sessions….down for the count. KO’d by creamy chicken casserole.
Nearly 3,000 staff, crew and other on-site support were out of commission…those who were sick were sequestered in their rooms, roommates who escaped the outbreak by means of an iron stomach or good fortune, were moved to other hotels (many 30-45 min away from the Showfloor that they had to get to and from every day). Even though they weren’t ill, their days just got immensely more complicated and exhausting.
However, the show must go on! New staff from all over the nation, and even other countries, (including our own Melissa) were called in urgently to finish setting up and to staff all the things needed. Crash courses in live speaking and giving tech demos were taken while on the plane, phones were constantly ringing to wrangle the new boots on the ground. Fresh faced new employees were thrown into the deep end with fingers crossed they would live up to the event’s reputation and what the attendees were expecting.
It is unknown if anyone ate from the crew buffet ever again during that event. To this day- Melissa is wary of buffets and will opt to get the team breakfast before we arrive on site, just to be safe.
Terror in the Fast Lane
While Angela was working with an automotive client for a relaunch of their most renowned model of car- hearts literally stopped and skipped a beat- and it wasn’t because of the stunning example of engineering that was on stage…
The new version of the car was quite a breakthrough from the past- so the creative team took advantage to have some fun with the unveiling. The idea was to literally break a sheet of glass, then the car would be driven through the shattered pane and appear in the middle of the stage. To do this, the team had built a mechanical device that would trigger the breaking of the glass at a very precise moment, in a very precise spot. Because of the complicated mechanism, the team had been testing for months and rehearsing the day before- the technology always worked and the glass always broke. (You know where this is going already don’t you?)
At the announcement, just imagine: The lights bright, the emcee full of charm and exuberance, crowds of people milling about, flashes from cameras, everyone ready for the grand reveal. The team in the shadows, anxious for all the hard work to come to fruition. Music is pumping, smoke machines and dancing lasers add to the ambiance. This. Is. It. Everything was LIVE!
The very precise moment arrived…the glass – didn’t shatter?! The mechanism got stuck- it only broke a tiny inch of glass. The car couldn’t drive through the solid glass pane. Breaths caught in throats- the attendees didn’t know what was supposed to happen-but how do we recover? Hearts stopped.
While the thought “gaaah-WHAT?!” was going through the team’s minds: Stagehands dimmed the lights. Darkness hid the still whole glass pane, providing cover while someone ran out on stage. They broke the glass pane by hand with a mallet, as the audio team played a recording of breaking glass in perfect coordination, then dashing off stage again before the lights came back up and the emcee announced the car slowly pulling forward. It all took less than 10 seconds.
As hearts slowly started beating and people let out the breath they were holding, the team relaxed into the rest of the event. Was that plan B ever practiced? No. But it was the absolute best example of why having a good team is so important. They jumped into action and saved the day! The lesson learned is to NEVER use such risky mechanism to launch anything! But did we learn? Maybe, maybe not…we’ll just have to see what the future holds.
Congrats if you made it to the end of this special spooky edition of our blog! We love all the amazing adventures our work takes us on- no matter what our blood pressure may be at the moment. What do you think was the scariest story of the ones we shared?
If you are interested in other stories about how our team can handle anything thrown at us- check out these blog posts:
No Luck Necessary- we break down how to think about some common issues that happen at tradeshows in order to make the best decision while staying calm.
Go & Fail: Victoria’s Paris Trip - when things go wrong in an other country that speaks another language.
The London Trip- another Victoria special, but this time there isn’t a language barrier