Exit
Make sure all exits are clearly visible. Depending on room size and seating capacity, the fire marshal might require exits behind the stage and technical areas to be accessible. A fire marshal might even require planner place personnel at exits to assist in the event of an emergency.

Aisleways
Aisles need to be clear and unobstructed. Required widths of aisles will vary depending on crowd size and the location of exits. Usually facility officials know what the fire marshal requires for aisle-width dimensions.

Trip Hazards
You might think trip hazards are things in the way of walkways or exits. But trip hazards also can be considered anything that could end up in walkways. Fire marshals may require chairs to be tied or fixed together, preventing them from being moved into areas where they would be in the way in an emergency.

Fireproofing
A fire marshal might require that an AV company provide proof that drapery and other scenic material have been fireproofed. Most professional drapery has a tag sewn in. But other custom-made scenery might be an issue if it’s located near lights or other heat sources. Also, anything hung over people’s heads must have a steel safety wire.

Fog Machines and Fire Alarms
AV companies and lighting designers like to use fog machines and hazers because they make light beams visible, which creates a nice effect. But these devices wreak havoc on smoke detectors. Using fog machines must be approved in advance so smoke alarms and fire detectors can be disabled. But in order to do that, at least one person (sometimes more) has to be hired to stand guard and manually trip fire alarms in the event of a fire. This is usually the case any time smoke detectors are disabled, even for rehearsals and when focusing lights.

Pyrotechnics
Simply put, if you have any kind of fireworks during an event, don’t mess around. Call the fire marshal’s office at the very beginning of planning. Tell the marshal everything you’re planning to do and get approval for it.

By Don Sadler

This spring, an Iceland volcano that spread clouds of atmospheric ash throughout Europe made air travel unsafe and resulted in unprecedented travel chaos worldwide. Starting April 14, virtually any flight scheduled into or out of European airspace was suspended. Within a week, nearly 100,000 flights had been canceled, and the chain reaction affected as many as 7 million travelers worldwide.

With the exception of the events on Sept. 11, such a widespread travel disruption was virtually unprecedented, says Tim Daniel, executive vice president of International SOS, a travel and medical crisis response company. “SARS and the H1N1 virus were big, but not as big as the volcanic ash cloud.”

During the crisis, International SOS had a 60 percent increase in the number of calls received from international travelers, corporate travel managers and security directors at its alarm center network. The company quickly launched a special micro-site that provided real-time information to members about available flights, lodging options and other helpful information.

The volcanic ash cloud crisis was unique in several respects. First, it was constantly evolving and there was no clear end in sight, which severely tested travel managers’ abilities to assist stranded employees. Also, unlike disruptions caused by natural disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes and acts of terrorism, this was not a life-threatening situation. But anyone who spent days stranded overseas or anyone responsible for coordinating meetings or events for stranded travelers will tell you that the volcanic ash event wasn’t life-threatening, but it was certainly a reality check regarding safety and crisis planning.

Takeaways

Before it fades too far into memory, it’s important to think about what travel managers and event planners learned from the crisis and how they have changed “business practices as usual” to lessen the impact of a similarly massive travel disruption in the future. “The ash cloud crisis was a major wake-up call for the industry that has caused everyone who has anything to do with international travel and events to re-examine everything they’re doing and how they do it,” says Daniel.

In hindsight, it’s clear that organizations with business continuity or crisis plans in place were much better prepared for the situation than those that had to deal with it on the fly. The first takeaway from the crisis is that travel managers need to create a plan now that details specific policies and procedures to be followed in the event of any kind of unforeseen travel disruption, whether it’s a major global crisis or relatively minor local issue.

Last month, the U.S. State Department issued a broad travel alert for Americans traveling to Europe due to heightened concerns about a potential al-Qaida attack in the region, further prompting the importance of having a travel crisis plan in place. The plan should answer such questions as:

• Are contingencies in place that anticipate major transportation disruptions and how they might impact the ability of traveling employees to make it home safely?

• Are employees required to make all travel arrangements through standard approved channels (e.g., a corporate travel manager or agent)?

• Which departments have authority to book alternative travel and lodging arrangements, approve costs and make other critical decisions quickly?

• Is there a master list of profile information for all employees — e-mail addresses, cell-phone numbers, Skype addresses, spouse or parent contact information, special medical needs, etc. — and is it current? Where does it reside?

• How does the organization keep track of traveling employees and communicate vital information to them?

• Do employees who travel abroad carry internationally enabled cell phones?

• Do employees on the road have remote access to company intranet (connectivity, passwords, protocols, etc.)?

Large companies and organizations face bigger challenges when it comes to dealing with larger travel crises. Ralph Colunga is the senior director of global travel and expense for Salesforce.com, which has up to 4,000 employees traveling at any given time, up to 2,000 of these traveling internationally.

One of the first things Salesforce.com changed after the ash cloud crisis was requiring employees to book all travel through corporate-approved channels. “It made us realize how dangerous it is to have ‘rogue’ travelers traveling outside the system who we couldn’t track,” he says.

The company also combined the expense and travel functions in order to “close the loop,” Colunga says. “This really helped us get our hands around all of our corporate travel and have a much better idea of where everyone is.”

Salesforce.com uses TravelTracker Mobile, a new service from International SOS, to monitor the locations of its traveling employees and communicate vital information to them in real time. This is a new upgrade to the original TravelTracker web-based service that enabled tracking via travelers’ mobile devices, rather than a laptop. It integrates the assistance services provided by International SOS’s medical, security and logistical experts. “This feature is particularly important when we are helping clients manage global crises,” says Daniel.

New Strategies

Some organizations and planners reacted to the ash cloud crisis with a desire to replace some meetings and events with web conferences, Skype and other types of virtual meetings, says Corbin Ball, an industry consultant and expert in meetings technology innovation who travels extensively overseas. “But I don’t see this as a permanent shift.”

Ball estimates that he has traveled for 900 presentations in the past 13 years and has never missed one due to a travel disruption. “Part of this is just sheer luck, but I’m also very cautious about how I book my travel. A lot of it is just intuition. If something doesn’t feel right, I usually avoid it.”

Here are a few more suggestions from Colunga for lessening the impact of major travel disruptions in the future, based on his company’s experiences with the volcanic ash cloud crisis:

1. Negotiate favorable contract terms with hotels and venues. Most contracts include standard force majeure (or acts of God) language that spells out under what circumstances cancellation fees will and will not have to be paid, and the ash cloud crisis was a classic example of force majeure. However, it’s smart to try to negotiate a clause in your contracts that lowers the bar for the standard that must be met in order for force majeure to apply.

2. Re-examine the refundable versus non-refundable ticket calculation. Non-refundable tickets are obviously cheaper. “But what’s the value of being able to change a ticket at no charge in the event of some kind of travel disruption?” asks Colunga.

3. Consider event-cancellation insurance. Policies can be purchased to cover both total and partial cancellations, as well as the lost revenue from a canceled event (in addition to event cancellation fees). For example, if an event normally generates $300,000 in revenue but due to a covered catastrophe, this revenue drops to $150,000, the policy would cover the difference.

4. Use social media tools wisely. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networking sites were used extensively by stranded employees and their organizations to communicate and share the latest information during the ash cloud crisis. But there was so much misinformation flying around, these tools were sometimes more harmful than helpful. An alternative is to create your own internal social media site that can be used by both traveling employees and the company to communicate key information safely and confidentially. A standard corporate intranet may do the trick, but Salesforce.com has created an application called Chatter for just this purpose. “Chatter is an internal social networking system that resides behind a company’s firewall,” Colunga explains. “It has proven to be very effective for exchanging messages between traveling employees and headquarters in real time, versus a static website.”

5. Keep travel profiles up-to-date. As noted earlier, a master list with detailed profiles and contact information for every employee who travels should be kept current and in a safe place. “Employees should also carry a buddy badge or wallet card with them that has emergency contact info for the company, country-specific information for where they’ll be traveling, information about medical support services, etc.,” says Colunga. “This is really simple, but it’s amazing how often it’s overlooked.”

Duty of Care

The central question to consider as you create a travel crisis plan is: What is our organization’s duty of care to our employees? Duty of care is a legal concept that presumes that companies and organizations have an obligation to take reasonably practical steps to safeguard their employees against reasonably foreseeable dangers, whether in the workplace or while they are traveling.

“Companies should strive to meet the highest prevailing duty of care standards when it comes to their traveling employees,” says Daniel. “And the best way to demonstrate duty of care is to create an integrated travel risk management plan, and then follow these procedures carefully in the event of a travel disruption.”

While no one can predict when or where the next major travel crisis might happen, few people question whether or not one will occur, says Daniel. “This (the volcanic ash cloud) won’t be the last time a major travel disruption like this happens.”

Shortly following the volcanic eruption, Don Sadler talked to meeting planners traveling internationally to find out how the disaster affected them. You can read that story here. To read more on what to include in contracts to protect your organization when a flight cancellation affects a meeting, read “Road Warriors Beware” by our legal columnist Barbara Dunn.

A plush bed with a high, pillow-top mattress may be a welcome sight for a busy meeting attendee at the end of the day, but for a little person, the luxurious bedding now featured in many high-end hotel rooms represents something else entirely. It’s an obstacle.

Marge Carlisle, a member of the conference management committee of Little People of America (LPA), says the trend toward higher beds is just one challenge little people face when traveling to a meeting or convention. Other issues include towels located out of reach (on a towel rack high on the wall), shower heads adjusted for a 6-foot-tall person that spray water over the head of a little person, an out-of-reach registration desk and mobility challenges such as 6- or 8-inch steps that are difficult for a little person to maneuver.

Carlisle and other members of the LPA conference management committee do on-site inspections and negotiate contracts to ensure that facilities for the national conference are accessible to the organization’s attendees, which can fill up to 700 rooms. “When they have high pillow-top beds, it requires us to have the hotel provide a stepping stool for each room,” says Carlisle. A hotel might have to provide 300 or 400 stools to accommodate conference attendees. They also have to build stairs to provide elevated access to the registration desk.

Accommodating meeting attendees that have such special needs, which are often centered around a physical disability, requires meeting planners to embrace the idea that each person, whether disabled or not, is an individual with a special set of needs.

A person with a disability faces numerous obstacles when attending a meeting. How can I maneuver the narrow aisles of the airplane? Can I handle the unwieldy door at the hotel? Will my wheelchair fit between the tables in the meeting room? A blind person might be puzzled by a reference to a PowerPoint slide. A deaf person might struggle in the dim auditorium light to see a sign language interpreter. The needs may not always be obvious, says Carlisle. “Consider the weight of the bathroom door, the ease of swing, if it is easy to open or close. It might need to be propped open [during an event].”

Meeting planners are more likely to face these issues and others related to accommodating disabilities in coming years. Nearly 24 percent of the total U.S. population will be disabled by 2030 (assuming incidence rates by age remain the same), according to a Harris Interactive study commissioned by the Open Doors Organization. More than 15 percent will be severely disabled.

“What are their abilities?” asks Jani Nayar, executive coordinator of the Society for Accessible Travel and Hospitality (SATH), an organization that seeks to raise awareness of the needs of travelers with disabilities. “What are their disabilities? What can he or she do or not do? Can the attendee get up from a wheelchair, take a few steps, stand up a few seconds, move from a chair to a seat?”  She adds: “You have to make sure you know what their abilities are. Don’t assume anything.”

The ADA and Beyond

Fortunately, many obstacles for anyone in the United States have been removed because of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which recently marked its 20th anniversary. The act specifies design requirements to make public buildings and facilities, including transportation facilities and meetings venues, more accessible. Also, the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986 requires airlines to accommodate persons with disabilities, whether at the ticket counter, on the concourse or on the airplane.

Planners should incorporate an assurance of ADA compliance in any venue contract for protection in case a problem subsequently arises with regard to accessibility, says Laurel Van Horn, research director of the Open Doors Organization. The Chicago-based organization’s goals are to teach businesses how to succeed in the disability market and to provide direct support to people with disabilities. “While hotels and other establishments typically say they are ADA-compliant, many in fact are not,” adds Van Horn.

Whenever possible, the planner should conduct a site visit in addition to asking specific questions. Possible problem areas include parking and drop-off points, routes to the building entrance, the actual entrance, routes to meeting space, the meeting space itself and restrooms. For overnight accommodations, planners should ask about accessible guest rooms (including how many have roll-in showers) and assistive technology (such as all-in-one visual notification kits and strobe fire alarms for those with hearing loss or portable shower benches for persons with restricted mobility). Also of concern are facilities such as restaurants, says Van Horn.

Public restrooms are an area where hotels and other meeting facilities often fall short related to compliance, especially in the case of older properties, says Van Horn. Instead of a full-size wheelchair stall, they may have an ambulatory stall with a raised toilet and grab rails on both sides — a configuration that works for older persons and those using crutches or a walker but not for people with no ability to stand and pivot from a wheelchair. There also may be a lack of lateral transfer space beside a toilet (often blocked by a sink), high mirrors, soap and towels out of reach, sinks too low to roll under and door latches that require tight grasping or twisting. And it’s not a case of one-size-fits-all, says Carlisle, who notes that a “handicapped” toilet is taller to accommodate a wheelchair user but is too tall for a little person to use.

Planners should also be aware of unenclosed staircases or escalators in public areas that could pose a hazard to persons with vision loss. During a site visit, look for a nearby natural surface or grassy area that could provide a service dog relief area, Van Horn suggests. Also, some doors are too heavy to open (5 pounds maximum pressure is allowed), and other doors swing in and block wheelchair access.

Logistical issues are a big part of accommodating persons with disabilities, and you have to consider the smallest detail. For example, it’s important to make sure a hydraulic lift on a transportation vehicle can handle a traveler in a specific wheelchair, says Nayar. The lifts have a capacity of 600 to 700 pounds. Some electric wheelchairs weigh 400 pounds or more. Depending on the size of the traveler and whether they use other heavy equipment, such as an oxygen concentrator, the lift may not be able to handle the wheelchair. “You need all the information beforehand, so it is not a surprise,” Nayar says. “Also, always get the dimensions of the wheelchair.”

Karen Wolffe of the American Foundation for the Blind urges planners to ensure that a venue has Braille and large print signage for restrooms, exits, room numbers and other locations such as the cafe, cloakroom, lounge, registration area, emergency exit or medical supply station.

The ADA is a difficult law to enforce, says Eric Lipp, executive director of the Open Doors Organization. “Sometimes accessibility shortcomings can be overcome by old-fashioned customer service through individual attention to each guest and their specific needs,” he says.

Accommodation also requires communication, both during an event and before. Sadly, not all barriers are physical; attitudinal barriers are everywhere. Often, service personnel treat a person with a disability as if they cannot make decisions for themselves. Instead, they ask questions of a companion, says Nayar.

Pre-Event Planning

Accommodating persons with various special needs requires planning ahead, starting months before an event. Pre-event promotional materials should request that attendees who require accommodation for a disability contact the organizer with details of their specific requirements. But Wolffe notes that a brochure should be sent electronically in order to be effective for people without sight or with severely limited sight.

Elizabeth T. Spiers of the American Association of the Deaf-Blind suggests setting up a section on a registration website for people to state their needs. “As the date gets near, you need to set a deadline by which people need to respond,” says Spiers, who recommends allowing a month at least to arrange interpreters or other services — the more time the better. Planners may want to contact a sign language agency, a computer-assisted real-time captioning (CART) company, or someone to provide assistive listening devices or systems in order to find out how much time they need. “It is often more expensive to provide accommodations at the last minute,” she says.

“If you are working with a person who has both a vision loss and a hearing loss, it becomes a little more complicated,” says Spiers, whose organization services people with both vision and hearing losses. One deaf or hard-of-hearing person with low vision may need his or her own interpreter, while another may rely on his residual hearing and prefer an ALD (assistive listening device) or CART services. A fully deaf-blind person may rely on tactile signing and need an interpreter who can sign into his or her hands.

During a Meeting

Accommodations for disabled persons during a meeting can include something as simple as designating enough time for breaks and between sessions to allow persons in wheelchairs to navigate the restrooms, elevators, etc., especially if such facilities are limited in number. Planners also should be sure there is enough space for wheelchairs to move freely between tables and to maneuver and turn. Open spaces scattered throughout a room allow attendees in wheelchairs to position themselves as they like.

Carlisle suggests that meeting planners accommodate disabled persons with as little separation as possible from the rest of the group. For example, anyone riding in a wheelchair accessible van to a conference outing misses out on the conversations and networking opportunities happening on the bus where everyone else is riding. “Find a way to include people in as much as possible without segregating them from the group,” she urges.

A major obstacle for wheelchair users is the availability of ground transportation, or lack thereof. Holding meetings on-site or at an adjoining facility can save time and money, as well as wear and tear on attendees. Multi-day conferences should be held on full-service properties, Van Horn recommends.

The arrangement of the room, lighting and seating should ensure that deaf persons can see sign language interpreters or CART captions; space should be reserved in the front of the room for these persons. To the extent possible, interpreters and CART operators should be provided with a copy of presentations in advance. At a minimum, a list of specialized terms and proper names should be provided, says Van Horn.

If there is a directory, the information should be available in an accessible format. There also could be helpers available to answer questions and to direct blind people to registration, meeting rooms, restrooms, dog guide relief areas, etc., says Wolffe. “One of the most challenging issues [for blind persons] is the use of PowerPoint slides by many presenters,” Wolffe says. “If presenters don’t have their materials available in Braille or in a large-print version, they should describe for the sight-impaired everything that is shown visually — pictures, cartoons, graphs, etc. Presenters should avoid saying ‘look at this’ or ‘see what I mean’ while pointing to a slide or some other pictorial cue. Without sight, it is impossible to follow.”

“Don’t Be Shy”

Lipp says planners shouldn’t hesitate about asking meeting attendees beforehand what they need. “Don’t be shy,” he says. “You’re not saving any heartbreak by being shy. All you’re doing is putting yourself and that person in a bad situation. You should ask them to communicate what they need.”

Carlisle suggests a goal of providing accommodations that make a person as independent as possible. “We don’t want to be asking people to do things; we want to be as independent as everyone else,” she says. A simple example is locating the salt and pepper shakers nearer the edge of a large table rather than in the middle where a little person (or otherwise disabled person) couldn’t reach it.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section, offers a document on evaluating the accessibility of a meeting site at ada.gov/business/accessiblemtg.htm.

Just when meeting planners were starting to get used to the routines of air travel and airport security, along came the “underwear bomber,” who tried unsuccessfully on Christmas Day to ignite explosives he smuggled onto an airplane in his underwear.

The government response with regard to airport and in-air security was swift and, many believed, overblown, including new rules disallowing pillows and blankets and requiring all passengers to remain seated during the last hour of international flights. Airport security was also immediately tightened even more, resulting in even longer lines and waits.

While some of these rules have since been eased, the incident served as a reminder to many business travelers about the need to be well prepared before heading to the airport for a business trip. “Regardless of underwear bombers or heightened security, there are a lot of simple things business travelers can do to make their trip go more smoothly,” says Rob Hard, publisher of businesstraveldestinations.com.

Start preparing when you book

Hard believes that preparation starts when booking your flight. “My first rule of thumb is to avoid flying during peak times if at all possible, and especially between 6 and 9 a.m.” Of course, take non-stop flights when you can, but if you must make a connection, pay attention to potential weather conditions in connecting airports. “If you have a choice of connecting in a warm or cold weather city in the wintertime, choose the warm city to avoid potential weather delays.”

With most airlines now charging fees to check bags, carrying bags onto the flight is now an even higher priority for most business travelers. The Transportation Security Administration suggests packing carry-on bags in layers — for example, a layer of clothes on the bottom, then electronics, then more clothes, and then heavier items on top — to help expedite passage through security screening.

One of Hard’s favorite tips is to ship meeting and event materials to your destination or back home instead of packing them in your bags. “These will weigh down your luggage, resulting in either excess baggage fees or making it impossible to carry your bag on the plane,” he says. “Bring shipping packages and labels with you.” Many conferences are now passing out materials on thumb drives in order to make bringing them back home easier, he notes.

“Also, pack clothes that are in the same color families so that you bring fewer pairs of shoes and accessories,” Hard adds.

If you usually bring your laptop computer on flights, invest in one of the new laptop cases that are designed to be checkpoint friendly. These cases give screeners a clear and unobstructed view of your computer without you having to take it out of the bag, so there’s one less thing you have to remember to do as you prepare to enter security.

If you do have to check luggage, pack as lightly as possible so that your bag doesn’t exceed the airline’s weight limit (50 pounds for most airlines), resulting in excess baggage charges. Also use a TSA-recognized baggage lock if you lock your checked bags: These can be opened by security officers with a universal master key in case they need to inspect your luggage more carefully.

Also, don’t forget the TSA’s simple rule for carrying liquids onto planes: 3-1-1. This means bottles containing no more than 3.4 ounces of liquid can be packed in your carry-on bag if they are stored in a clear, one-quart plastic zip-top bag. One of these bags is allowed per passenger, and it must be removed from your carry-on and placed separately in the screening bin at security.

More simple steps

Other simple things you can do to make your airport experience and flight less stressful are to check in to your flight online before you leave for the airport and avoid parking at the airport (or off-airport lots) if you can. “Having your spouse or a friend drop you off will save you a lot of time and money,” says Hard. Many hotels offer free shuttles back to the airport when you’re on your way home, so be sure to ask about this before hailing a cab.

The most important step to take to minimize hassles and stress at the airport is also the most obvious one — and the one Hard says many travelers ignore: Get there early.

“Lots of people get angry and blame the security process or the screeners if they have to rush to catch their plane or they miss it, but they really have no one to blame but themselves,” he says. “Just plan on having some time to kill at the gate and bring something to keep you occupied, whether it’s work or a good book to read.

Don Sadler is a freelance writer based in Atlanta, Ga., who covers the business side of meeting planning. Reach him at don@donsadlerwriter.com.