Event Horror Stories

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

The London Trip - Another Victoria Adventure

Victoria thought the Paris trip was stressful….the universe said- Challenge Accepted!

After Paris, the next trip on the workshop world tour was Toronto. And aside from me forgetting that I booked a red eye and making some last minute catering arrangements once I arrived, the event went great! Toronto was stunning, I loved the city and can’t wait to visit again. London, however, London was another example in what can go wrong…

The corporate offices in London were not big enough for the amount of people we were expecting for this workshop, so I found a ‘we-work’ type of space within the same larger office complex that offered meeting space as well as catering. The space looked great online and the communication from the team during planning was fantastic. But since it wasn’t actually in the company’s offices, when I arrived in London, I stopped by the space to meet with the site’s event coordinator to ensure we would be all set for the event the next day.

We went over the layout of the room (which wasn’t set up for us just yet- but would be by the night crew), the tech that my clients would need, the timing of when I would be arriving the next day and other details. The event coordinator wouldn’t be on site the next day, she was talking the day for a vacation, but she promised the room was being set up this evening and the site manager would be there at 8 am when my team would arrive. Everything seemed perfect. I was beyond happy and confident.

The next day, my client and I arrive at the building, and the doors to the office space are locked. The main building receptionist can’t help since it’s a private company. She has the same contact information I do. I knock on the doors for a while, I call the numbers I have from the event coordinator, I email all the contacts I have. No one is around. A few people who rent full time offices, or had subscriptions to the work space in the venue show up and use their code/keycard to unlock the door, but didn’t feel comfortable letting us in (TOTALLY FAIR- I asked one person, they said no, good enough for me).

Then, people who are here for our event start showing up…while we are still just standing around…I explain we are just waiting to get in and try to check in people who are already here…

Finally a little past 8:30 am, the barista/catering person (who was the only person in the entire space at the time) came to the door. I explained the situation and while she knew we were supposed to be there because she was in charge of putting out the food, she didn’t know what else was going on.

Since I had been in the space the day before, I knew what room we had rented and guided the team downstairs to there. It looked exactly the same as when I had seen it the day before! The night crew hadn’t done ANYTHING. The projectors weren’t set up to the direction we needed, there was no food in the room, because there wasn’t a buffet table. Chairs were stacked in the corners; the projector screen wasn’t on the same wall as the projector was presenting. The tech adaptors that we needed weren’t there. I may have lost my manners for a split second and cursed in front of my client. It didn’t phase him thank goodness.

We were supposed to be starting soon….and we still had things on the list to do! Set up the pop up banners, check in the attendees, get the food set up, FIND the tech adaptors, set up the adapters….

Since we already had people who came in the door with us, I was so far behind in checking people in. My laptop’s battery wasn’t going to last much longer, and there was NO one in the venue besides the catering lady and a few other locals who use the space for their daily work. My client took over setting up the pop up banner and seeing to what he could figure out in the room for the projector. Attendees started taking seats and chatting amongst themselves. I went to the cabinets I saw the event coordinator pull adapters and cords from the day before and grabbed everything I could. I even knocked on random office doors and opened them to see if they had anything that looked useful.

I set myself up on a table upstairs and get to checking people in as they come in the front door and send them down to the room. People are also coming and asking where the food is, since it’s supposed to be in the room. I tell them it’s coming but not to eat the stuff that had appeared in the main hall room, since that wasn’t for us (there was another meeting happening in one of the areas). As I’m sitting at the main door checking people in, a work crew arrives. They are here to work in one of the offices on the main floor. Since I’m talking to people coming in and directing them around, they assume I work there. They start asking where the bathrooms are, and general stuff- no biggie. But then they start asking if they can prop doors open (sure?) Borrow this trolley they found in a closet (yes?) Move things around in an office (Yeah, that seems reasonable?) Take things off the shelves and move bigger things out into the main room…at this point I was like- yup, I’m in charge- SURE! No one else is here! Nice guys, very respectful and their attention to detail when taking plants and décor off walls was amazing.

I finally get some time to find the catering person, and ask her when the food and coffee will be put out, she said that she already has put it out. After asking where exactly, since it was supposed to be in the room with the attendees, she says that since there wasn’t the table set up, she put it out in the main hall room….yup, the stuff I’ve been telling people NOT to touch, was actually ours…so they could have been snacking and sipping this whole time. *d’oh* Not her fault at all, she didn’t have the space, (since the night crew hadn’t set up the room properly) so she put it where she could. I just didn’t have the chance to ask, nor for her to tell me- since she was the only person in the entire venue and the regulars were asking for coffee (which is her real job, being a barista, not an event coordinator, she needs a raise). A quick announcement to the group and they are distracted by getting a treat and caffeine.

It’s past 9:30 am now, so we are running quite late. Still no word from the event coordinator or the manager.

My client ended up having to stand on a chair to connect a computer directly into the projector because the cords at the presentation docket weren’t connecting to that projector (It’s so complicated, I promise you, we tried everything we could, these are tech people- we aren’t dumb!)

Somehow, eventually, my clients get things working, as best as they can anyway, and starts the presentation. It’s almost 11 am before the manager arrives and comes to find me while I’m sitting outside the room wrapping up reports. Apparently he got a new phone and hadn’t set up the calendar and emails properly yet…I was upset, but I tried to be as kind as I could. I told him that I am embarrassed in front of my client and so should he, and this is an international company that they have just seriously irritated. I was SO CONFIDNET in his team and location yesterday and this turned into an absolute wreck. He tried to give a few flippant answers as to why some of our issues weren’t significant, but overall was incredibly apologetic and understanding. After all was said and done, he didn’t charge us for rentals, just a portion of the food.

During the entire conversation with the manager, I was thinking back to the story Melissa told me about her UK stop on a bus tour when she was just starting out in events. She thought she had booked a conference room at the offices she needed, but the team at the offices all assumed that they were “getting on the bus”. Her response to them makes me laugh every time- ‘We speak the same language, there isn’t a language barrier here, how did this happen?!’ …Murphey’s Law- if it can go wrong, it will. Her event worked out great of course, just another funny story….

To all the attendees, if you ever see this- you were all lovely and I hope you learned something cool! If not….I hope it at least gave you a fun story to tell about the hectic morning before a workshop you once attended. Yes the American was overwhelmed, but I was also thrilled (at the end).