It was now day number three of a scheduled three day move in so we were ready for the show to open up. The show floor would open later on in the morning but Registration was scheduled to open earlier. In fact it was ready to open now. The wall-to-wall carpet was down, the computers were all up and running and the registration counters were manned with people ready to greet attendee's. Yes. It was ready to open.

Since I was the Freight Foreman for the show I was where all good freight people should be, back at the freight doors. All of the freight doors were now closed in preparation for show opening. The glass doors that separated the Convention Center lobby and the show floor would open in about 5 minutes to allow in the throngs of people waiting to enter the show floor via the registration area. 

I was in the back of the hall going over some paperwork when I happened to glance up. Looking towards the front of the hall I saw what looked like smoke hovering over the Registration area. It looked like a thick fog. I noticed other people looking in that direction too. I keyed up my walkie-talkie and asked for the Show Account Executive. Once he answered me I asked him if he was seeing the same thing that I was seeing over Registration. Before I could get an answer, a panicked voice came back over the radio. 

“Registration is flooding”! 

As the person repeatedly screamed into the radio I started to run up the center aisle towards the front of the hall.  I got to the Registration area and noticed that it wasn't smoke I saw, it was rain! And not just a light rain either. It was a pouring rain. It was emanating from way up in the cat-walks. Upon closer inspection I noticed it was coming from the buildings fire sprinkler system. Pouring right down on top of the fully carpeted, computerized, and fully manned registration area. I looked around the hall and saw that it wasn't raining anywhere else in the hall but it was definitely pouring directly onto the entire registration area.

Needless to say, every available body was now rushing to the front of the hall. Building employees started showing up with squeegees and mops. In about 5 minutes there were about 50 people in the area ready to do whatever was necessary.

It was very chaotic but the first thing that we did was to grab the computers and move the kiosks and counters to dry land. We also attempted to save the printers and other materials from the Reg counters but they were all completely drenched with water by now. Then we brought in the forklifts. The forklift operators put their fork blades flat on the floor and drove forward picking up sopping wet carpet as they drove. Once they had their forks full of sagging, wet carpet they would drive out the side freight door and dump them onto the cement. Then the Convention Center engineers opened up the floor drains which are placed every 20 feet or so. These drains open up into the parking lot below us where all of our cars were parked and are now getting free car washes. We then took up squeegees brought in by Convention Center personnel and we began to push the water towards the drains. 

It was about this time that I glanced over towards the lobby and saw the hundreds of faces peering at us through the glass doors. I wondered what those people must be thinking of all of us.

If anyone is knowledgeable about building fire sprinklers then you know that once the sprinkler system is triggered, the entire sprinkler system must continue to drain until it empties. Then and only then will the water stop flowing. So it continued to rain down upon us for what seemed like an eternity but was probably closer to about 20 minutes. 

We then placed backwall around the Registration area. While all of this was going on the folks from Registration began to register people out in the lobby. Once we were able to open the doors again, the attendee's that were registered could now enter the show. 

The show opened only about 30 minutes late but of course Registration was to remain closed for now. 

After the sprinklers emptied and all of the wet carpet had been taken up and piled outside, the remaining water was pushed down the drains and we were ready to bring in the new carpet. Of course the water spread out far enough to soak some of the aisle carpet so that it had to be cut and replaced as well. Once the floor was dry, it took about 30 minutes to get the wall-to-wall carpet down and the kiosks and counters replaced. 

And the reason for all of this mess, confusion and added expense? It seems that a Convention Center employee had been up on the catwalk with a broom or mop over his shoulder and you guessed it. He turned a corner and hit a sprinkler head which set off the remaining sprinklers in that section. I am not sure of the future of that Convention Center employee but I did hear that when he realized what he did, he ran away to avoid getting caught. The problem was that so many people including some of the house electricians saw him up there. 

I was very proud of the way that everyone came together to deal with this emergency. It didn't matter what Union we belonged to, we all worked for the same employer. We all take pride in our work and wanted the show to be as successful as possible. So everyone worked together and because of that, we were able to have registration up and running in about an hour and a half. 

I have seen some exciting show openings in my days. I have seen NAMM open with the Disneyland Marching Band parading through the halls. I have seen Celebrities and Politicians cut opening ribbons. I have seen protesters, sky divers, balloonists, and musical acts open shows but this one has to go down as my most memorable show opening.