From the Publisher
Anything that Can Go Wrong…
by Pat McCarrell | Published in October 2006 Departments
A few years ago, me and the missus purchased a modest chalet on a small island in the Pacific Northwest. (Before I go on, let me warn you that it won’t be immediately apparent that this story has anything to do with events, but I promise it does, so bear with me.)
Accessible only by boat, the island is a sharp contrast to where we lived at the time, a busy Seattle suburb located just over an hour away. We call it a cabin because it’s pretty small, but the structure is fairly new and modern, with all the amenities — plumbing even! (Still with me?)
We stretched a bit to buy the place, but as second homes go it was affordable and the location and setting made it a real gem. Huge, ancient maple trees, along with stands of younger alder and Douglas fir surrounded the place with tranquility. The kids could wander the woods, dirt roads and beaches freely. (Really, this is an event story.)
The deal closed on a beautiful spring day in late March and right off, we set about cleaning, painting, decorating and all those other things you do when you first take possession of a new place — turning it into your own.
A month later, I answered a call to my cell phone from the island association manager, whom I had never met. A welcome call, I supposed.
“Is this Pat McCarrell?” he asks.
“Yep,” I say.
“This is the island manager, and I just wanted to let you know that maple tree on your lot fell on the house during that wind storm last night.”
“Gulp!” I say.
(Here it comes now…)
Event people are intimately familiar with horror stories; unforeseen disasters lurk behind every twist and turn. We plan and plan and plan, but Murphy’s Law was written with our industry in mind.
A planner friend of mine recently described a dinner cruise where the food was perfect, the weather cooperated, and the entire affair was a resounding success — right up until the moment the boat sank, and the Coast Guard had to rescue the guests.
I know you’ve had your share of “Gulp!” moments, and we thought as Halloween rolls around this October, it would be a fitting time to hear some event horror stories — mostly so that some of us might avoid the mistakes of others, but also partly out of morbid curiosity.
Not surprisingly, we found that most of you would rather forget that a scary event moment ever happened rather than write it down.
Still, some brave souls shared their worst nightmares.
From spelling errors in clients’ names to booking travel to the wrong destination, beginning on page 50, Managing Editor Rachel Globus will hold your hand through an odyssey of scary stories, while Graphic Artist Michael Petry brings the idea to life with his design.
The beauty of these stories is that the tellers are still doing their thing. They didn’t fold up their tents, put the $5 meatballs in a doggy bag and go home. They pressed on, wiser for the experience, knowing that with just a few more hours making calls and thinking ahead, the next event would be perfect.
Just like when I arrived at the island house the day after receiving that phone call and surveyed the collapsed party deck, broken windows and branches poking through the chalet’s cathedral ceiling.
I saw the stump of the big maple I had so admired, looked lovingly at the other trees that provided the privacy and shade I liked so much, and yanked the starter cord of my chainsaw. A good plan leaves nothing to chance.
About the author: Pat McCarrell
Pat McCarrell was formerly the publisher and editor of Event Solutions magazine.
Contact: editor@event-solutions.com