I was at a scientific meeting, and the organization hosting the meeting had rented the entire conference suite of a hotel for the duration of the meeting. The meeting started on Wednesday, and the last speaker was scheduled at 4:45PM on Saturday night (ending at 5PM). The hotel annoyed the organizers early on by not providing coffee, water, or pastries for the coffee breaks (this was in the contract), but that was straightened out.
However, Saturday afternoon I and a colleague emerged from the 2PM session to see that all of the large poster boards on which scientific results are presented had been moved from the presentation area and were crammed into a small corner of one room. People who were still in the sessions did not know where their posters were, and had to hunt through stacks of the poster boards to retrieve their posters. This was odd, but upon exiting to the main gathering area, we discovered that all of the vendors were taking down their booths much earlier than usual, and that there was a giant Tiki statue in the middle of the hall! We got hold of a friend of ours who was one of the organizers. She said that while we were scheduled to have the rooms until 5PM, the hotel had scheduled a "Hawaiian-theme" wedding reception, with sit-down dinner, to START at 5PM! The hotel staff had come around and were forcing all of the scientific people to leave early so they could set up!
This continued through the rest of the afternoon, with hotel staff entering the rooms *during the sessions* to remove chairs and tables, clear away water pitchers, and attempt to force us out early. The poor embarrassed staff members were as quiet as possible so as not to interrupt the talks, but you just can't stack chairs quietly, nor take down tables without blocking someone's view. The speakers were some of the more popular ones, so the sessions were well-attended, and that did not make taking down chairs any easier. The hotel had the misfortune to be located in the same city as the headquarters of our scientific organization, so our lawyer was there by 3PM. I believe we got a significant portion of our bill refunded by the hotel for their poor planning. You would think that a hotel event coordinator would know to leave breakdown and set-up times between functions! Asharah's comment: Why, when they can just kick people out early and still get paid? I feel sorry for the poor bride and groom!
BadBusiness0722-05
