They say you learn a lot about a person’s character during times of adversity. And while it’s kind of a stretch to think of a power outage as an instance of adversity, when we lost electricity at the Hotel Irvine (Calif.) mid-morning on Day 2 of our first-ever West Coast Quirk’s Event in March, I couldn’t help but marvel at how most attendees and exhibitors shrugged off the situation and went right back to the business at hand.
The hotel did a great job of handling the outage, which affected a large area and apparently originated after a nearby transformer blew. Generators kicked in immediately so that the meeting rooms and exhibit spaces were at least dimly lit rather than in darkness. By early afternoon, the meeting rooms had auxiliary power to run Power-Point decks but in the sessions that I attended, most presenters just spoke off the cuff and asked folks to bear with them. If anything, the dim light and no-tech vibe made the sessions seem a bit more informal and engaging, as speakers encouraged interaction and attendees happily asked questions.
I expected that some attendees might use the situation as an excuse to head out early and while we did see some evidence of that, I found the afternoon sessions to be just as busy as the previous day’s.
There was grumbling from some quarters but most everyone involved seemed to understand that the outage, which lasted until after the event closed down, was beyond our control. Again, it helped that the hotel sprang into action almost without missing a beat and deployed staff in an army-like fashion. The sense of “the show must go on” camaraderie was palpable and many took to Twitter to keep the positive energy flowing:
Nice handling #QuirksEvent #mrx organizers, exhibitors and speakers despite an OC power outage!
Keeping Calm and Carrying On at #QuirksEvent. No power... No problem.
Have been loving seeing the #quirksevent updates from CA. Even during #lightsout, researchers shine (or glow?). Fave hashtag: #Qpocalypse2017
Would recommend the event
Preliminary results from our post-event survey have also been heartening: 97 percent of client-side attendees surveyed said they would recommend the event to a friend or colleague. Some sample comments:
“I had heard from several attendees at [another MR conference] that they really enjoyed the Brooklyn event. It was very convenient to have a West Coast location to attend and the registration pricing for corporate researchers made it a no-brainer.”
“Really liked pretty much everything about it. I spoke about my experience very positively to my peers and leaders. I wrote a synopsis of key learnings that went over very well among the leadership team. I would definitely like to come back next year. Session lengths of 30 minutes were good. I also liked that this conference does not have a lot of pomp and circumstance ... no big-shot overrated keynote speaker or some boring main session ‘panel discussion’ (for me, ‘panel discussion’ equates to ‘good time to go back to my room and do some e-mail’ or ‘hit the expo hall and collect some swag’).”
“I thought the power outage was pretty cool.” (Bless you, kind soul!)
Truly grateful
Along with the plaudits we also got a lot of constructive criticism – about the quality of the session topics, the layout of the exhibit hall and meeting rooms and the networking opportunities, etc. – all of which we plan to work on.
We’ll be back in Irvine in 2018 and as we get ready, at the time of this writing in early March, to head to Brooklyn in a few weeks for The Quirk’s Event East, it’s gratifying to know that the worst can bring out researchers’ best. To everyone who was there and who made the most of it, please know we are truly grateful!