Event Glitches Happen
After hosting events for upwards of a decade, I can honestly say one thing: Nothing ever runs smoothly. For every event you attend that appears to run like clockwork, there is at least one somebody behind the scenes ripping their hair out. From sound system glitches, to weather problems… restroom “malfunctions”, to miscommunications with staff and venues. You are always fighting a battle with something that threatens to disrupt the event or worse… bring it to a grinding halt.
When I got the message on my phone Saturday from Maria saying there was a double booking for the night and the dance had to be cancelled at the last minute, I could feel her pain. It’s an event organizer’s worst nightmare. What do you do? The only thing you can. You extend an apology, offer to make things right with your audience, and move on. It seems most people I’ve talked to have been very understanding about this glitch. We hope you will be to. If you can, rally the troops and we’ll see you at the next dance on March 13th.
So Maria doesn’t feel so bad… here are a few memorable event glitches that Dawn and I have gone through:
Weather: Yes, we’ve had to cancel a dance at the last minute too. In 2004, Hurricane Charlie was bearing down on Central Florida. Leading up to the weekend, the storm wasn’t supposed to hit Orlando. It wasn’t until Friday afternoon that it changed course leading to a direct hit Friday night. After weathering the storm and accessing the damage at our own house, it suddenly hit us… what about the dance? We made a hair-raising drive across Orlando (with no working stop lights) to check out the situation at the venue. The venue was okay, but there was no power and there was at tree down in the parking lot. We decided to cancel the event. However, since we had no power ourselves and the cell phone network was intermittent at best, we had no way of letting anyone know. The best we could do is post a hand written sign on the venue door. To this day, we have only met two people who ever saw that sign.
Power: I’ve encountered a lot of technical glitches. From missing adaptors to the blue screen of death (why do you think I DJ with a Mac now?), however, there is one technical problem that is almost impossible to overcome… loss of power. One night power to the venue suddenly cut out due to some mild weather overhead. I mean, what do you do? Whistle and hum? How do you prevent something like this? Most portable UPS units will only last for few minutes. Even then, what about lights? Fortunately, the power came back on a few minutes later. Over the course of the night, this happened twice. Five minutes after the dance was over, the power blinked out and stayed out. We had to break down and clean up by pointing our car headlights in the front door.
Venues: There are a few factors in event planning that are out of your control. The venue is one of them and the one that leads to the most issues. Sure, you try to prevent problems by securing contracts, but even then, there are no guarantees. I don’t think I have ever worked with a venue that didn’t have one issue or another over the course of holding events there. As an event coordinator, this one constantly looms over you. From the A/C units undergoing “schedule maintenance” on the night of your event to last minute schedule changes and cancellations, I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times we’ve had to make emergency adjustments due to an issue related to the venue. One venue suddenly changed their close time and informed us during the dance. Another promised to provide food and drink for a special event and reneged the day of the event. The worst? One venue cancelled our booking at the last minute because they had an offer for more money… yes, they even admitted that. Obviously, that ended any future business they got from us.
So in the scheme of things, an over 8 year run at a good quality venue with only one scheduling glitch is pretty darn good! And to Maria… it happens!