A shaky ending

I'm back at the Abode of Bobness after a week long conference. This is a national conference for a trade association to which I belong. As conferences go, this is probably my favorite one of the year. Due to the nature of my job, my travel schedule usually includes three or four big shows which require travel in addition to another three or four regional meetings which are a drive.

The reason I like this one is because I get to see many business associates who are spread throughout the country. It's also a great opportunity at the trade show to see the newest of products, goods, and services. Probably more to the point, like any big conference there are plenty of parties, receptions, dinners, and entertainment opportunities. Remind me to tell you a great story about one of those dinners and the adventure that followed.

But anyway, this was shaping up as one of the better conferences in recent years. The educational seminars were actually interesting and informative, the trade show had a lot of vendors I needed start looking into, and most importantly I got to connect with so many people I wanted to see. A couple of other good things career wise happened too, but that again is another story for later in the week after I've caught up on some much needed sleep. So the conference was wrapping up with the closing speaker this morning when we all got a big surprise...



... 5.8 (later revised to 5.4) worth of surprise. Oh wait, did I neglect to mention the conference was in Anaheim, California? The second floor ballroom started to roll a little bit, then things started to shake, then started to shake a lot harder. About maybe 10 seconds later it was over. They never had to evacuate the hotel and there was no damage other than some small wall and ceiling fixtures which were shaken loose. Needless to say, the rest of the closing session was canceled although the afternoon committee meetings took place. That's what I would call a shaky ending.

The amazing thing is that this isn't the first time something like this has happened during a conference I was attending. Years ago, it was a Tuesday morning session at a smaller conference in Miami. Strangely enough, it was the last day of that conference as well. I was sitting in on a round-table open discussion with about 20 other people when this happened...


I'm beginning to think I should consider not attending conferences anymore.