Emergency Planning: When Crisis Strikes

You are a recent college graduate and have been working with the most successful planning firm in Portland, Oregon for the past 12 months. You have assisted with dozens of events and are now excited to lead your first large event. It is three days until your event, the second annual Women's Day Conference. The local medical school, Oregon Health Sciences University, is hosting the day-long conference in Portland, Oregon at the Portland Oregon Convention Center. Each attendee is paying $100 to receive a fun day of advice on women's health, a catered box lunch, a health expo, and break-out sessions that vary from yoga to nutrition while undergoing cancer treatments. The event was well received last year and has received a lot of press. The University is excited by the press and since most of the labor and items are donated this is a large fund raiser for their operations.

This morning you were notified by your assistant that the web registration did not automatically close as expected which led to 8,000 paid registrations being processed and confirmed. The capacity of the Convention Center is 7,000 given the arrangements for the trade show, theater seating, and break-out session rooms.