George Little Management: Heat Stroke Heroes

If you weren’t there, you can’t fully appreciate the living hell Sunday morning brought to the west side of Manhattan. Thanks to an oversight on the part of the local police precinct near the Javits, no one with GLM or the convention center knew about the marathon scheduled to run that morning…

…along 42nd Avenue. Which meant 8th Avenue was closed for blocks. Plus the other numbered streets that crossed the Avenue. Plus the surrounding side streets. Plus all the routes shuttle busses, taxis, and show attendees rely on to get to the Javits. I stood in the center of 43rd and 8th, where you could see closed streets in all four directions…for blocks and blocks and blocks.

Then there was the parade.

Yes, a parade. The Puerto Rico Day Parade, also fond of the west side, had begun using the few remaining side streets for staging (says someone who sat side by side with a big honkin’ marshmallow of a float for four excruciatingly long blocks).

And it was hot. Humid. Miserable. Painful.

What’s all this equate to (other than the modern day equivalent of Dante’s sixth ring of hell)? Hundreds of buyers, reps, and vendors struggling to get to the show on foot, some of which were close to passing out from heat. Literally.

Thanks to the fast thinking of GLM staff, the welcome at the Javits was a warm (well, actually, cool) one. As soon as they got word of what was happening outside, they launched into action, lining up endless tanks of cold water, prepared to hand cups of relief to exhausted entrants crawling through the doors on their last legs. Other staff members were there at the doors to catch people wobbling and fading…everyone beginning each sentence with “We are so, so very sorry…we didn’t know….”

And that’s exactly what everyone needed to hear. The first moments of this disaster were sprinkled with Twitter tweets chiding the show for not notifying attendees of the street closures in advance…but moments later, as word spread at each doorway that GLM was just as caught off guard, the tone changed, and everyone agreed…

GLM saved the day.

Kudos to everyone who handed out water, caught people who crumbled, fanned exhausted walkers, and made sure no one wandered off unless they could do so in stable condition. If one memory stays with us from that morning, it will be how beautifully you handled a nightmare situation…with nary a complaint along the way. Well done, folks…well done.