Recently, I signed up for a one day conference on line and was asked to provide my emergency contact information. After weeks of holiday shopping and enduring the barrage of sales people requesting my home phone number, my first reaction was to leave the field empty. However, upon further thought I realized that providing this information benefits both myself and the meeting planner. Emergencies occur whether it’s at a weeklong conference out of town or an afternoon meeting near home. If it happened to me, I would want my family contacted immediately.

At Special D Events we always have a very detailed crisis management plan including every possible mode of contact for all of our vendors, clients and co workers on site. So, why not have the emergency information for our attendees as well? After all, we are accustomed to handling sensitive information such as credit card numbers and internal politics so what’s one more nugget in the name of safety? Whether it’s a peanut allergy or a natural disaster, unexpected incidents are bound to occur when the masses gather. Therefore, we at Special D Events fully support this request for information on registration forms.

— Lindsay Krause, Event Planner