It was going to be a big one -- not a large convention, just a golf tournament
for 25 people. But it was big for another reason.
Bonnie Wallsh was responsible for organizing this golf tournament-conference
for Meetings and Conventions magazine. The attendees were going to be fellow
planners and suppliers, including the president of the Professional Convention
Management Association.
That meant Wallsh had better get it right, because who knows conferences
better than conference planners?
"It was a prestigious group in my field," says Wallsh. "So I really wanted
everything to run smoothly."
Everything did seem to be running smoothly. A very nice hotel was booked
in Casa de Campo, in the Dominican Republic. An excellent golf course and
a lush, tropical setting made this a great choice.
The airline was booked, the arrangements had all been made and everything
was going fine -- until Mother Nature decided to throw a wrench into the works.
About four days before the tournament, Wallsh got a call from the hotel.
Hurricane Hugo was headed straight for the island. They would have to shut
down the hotel and the tournament was most definitely cancelled.
"I had several choices at that point," Wallsh recalls. "One was to reschedule
at the same facility at a later date. The second choice was to move the tournament
to a new location. This would have been difficult because no one can tell
where a hurricane is going to hit when it's on its way to shore."
The race was on. Her most esteemed colleagues were counting on her, and
Wallsh had to organize a tournament in four days. On top of that, hurricanes
are the perfect example of nature's unpredictability.
If anyone was going to pull this off, it was Wallsh. She started her company
in 1978, after her career as a teacher was cut short by government cutbacks.
Since then, she has built a very successful business that earns her --
well, let's just say she gets into the six-figure range on a good year.
"I called the publisher [of Meetings and Conventions magazine] and he suggested
a hotel in Orlando, Florida," Wallsh says.
This meant the flight arrangements would only need a transfer from Santo
Domingo (in the Dominican Republic) to Orlando tacked on to the original reservations.
But that was no good because, as Wallsh soon found out, the airports in the
Dominican Republic were closed -- due to the hurricane!
At any rate, the hotel in Orlando didn't have any space on its golf
course, anyway. That option wouldn't do.
Time was running out. Wallsh persisted.
"I called a few of the players who would be attending, to ask if they could
come to a rescheduled tournament at the original location. They were very
busy and couldn't reschedule, so that meant I had to go with the same
date at a different location.
"I spoke with someone from a hotel in Arizona. It had a golf course, but
it was not an impressive property by any means. I booked the space at that
hotel, anyway."
It wasn't over yet. Wallsh still had to contact the airline and see
if it could re-ticket everyone for the Arizona destination.
"I made the call to American Airlines and they agreed to re-ticket people
because of the hurricane. I had one day left.
"In one day, I had to get on the telephone with the airline, read over
everybody's flight arrangements and change the flight so that they would
be leaving at the same approximate time as their original flights were going
to leave.
"Next, I had to call all the players to tell them we were rescheduling,
but that I would get back to them to let them know what the new arrangements
were.
"Thirdly, I had to redo all of my banquet orders and hotel audio-visual
requirements so that the Arizona hotel would have them.
"Finally, I had to do a rooming list. All of those things had to be done
in one day."
That may not sound like a lot, Wallsh says, but it all had to be done for
25 people. That's a lot of phone calls, faxes and paperwork.
"I spent about three hours on the phone with American Airlines, going through
every flight record. I did the rooming list on the plane the next day.
"When I got to the hotel, we went through all the arrangements, and I made
sure that I was at the airport personally to greet every single person who
arrived for the tournament. Everything went flawlessly."
Whew. Talk about your stressful weeks! It's all in a day's work
for Wallsh.
If you've ever pulled off a successful party, you've got an idea
of how Wallsh feels when she plans a successful conference or meeting.
"I love being able to create an environment," explains Wallsh, "where people
can learn, network with one another and have a phenomenal experience. I love
being able to make it happen for them and plan it from start to finish."
It sounds like a hoot, but you have to be on the ball to do this work.
Conference planner Michael Ardenne explains:
"The people that are hired to coordinate our events are hired because they
can think quickly. It's not that things are designed to go wrong, it's
just that Murphy does live."
Ardenne is referring to the legendary Murphy's Law, which states that
if something can go wrong, it will.
Wallsh's problem with hurricane Hugo was the ultimate example of Murphy
at work. Ardenne and his associate, Vanessa Burns-Trevitt, have had similar
experiences.
For instance, there was an event that Ardenne recently organized with a
dance and a concert set in the evening. The band had signed the contract for
the event 14 months earlier.
"On the night of the event, an hour before they were to perform,"
says Ardenne, "the entertainer informed me that they no longer did dance sets;
they only did concert sets."
Ardenne sat down with the entertainers and did some crafty negotiating.
He's very firm and when it came time to hit the stage, the group did
both a concert set and a dance set.
"If the client knew half the stuff that went on before an event, they'd
have a heart attack," says Burns-Trevitt.
"That's why we don't give the client a walkie-talkie," responds
Ardenne, only half joking.
When all is said and done, the client shows up at an event and thinks everything
is fine -- nothing to fear. But organizers like Ardenne and Wallsh know the
reality; they do the impossible in hair-raising situations, so that it all
looks peachy at showtime.