The Conference Coach™

On September 11th, 2001, I was the CEO of InterAct Conferencing in Atlanta.  My business partner, Marlene Waehner invited me to an event at her church that day and as we entered, we respectfully turned our cell phones off.  However, everyone else’s cell phones seemed to ring off the hook.  I kept thinking, “how rude!”.   The pastor finally interrupted the meeting to let us know what everyone else in America already knew.  We were under attack.

We switched on our phones, raced out of the building and headed for Marlene’s house where the scene on TV was like watching a disaster movie.  Marlene’s daughter Heather had a boyfriend (now her husband) who was on his second day in his first job with Morgan Stanley on the 67th floor in the Twin Towers.  We watched in horror as that building collapsed.  Although we were sure Brian was dead, we tried and tried to call anyway but all circuits were tied up.  Fortunately 2 hours later, he called a friend who called us – he got out with moments to spare.  It turned out well for Heather and Brian, but not so for many others.

For the next few days, America was paralyzed.  Everyone stayed home.  Flights were grounded.  We were inundated with the human tragedy of what had happened.  I remember feeling lost, sad, afraid and dumfounded that this anyone would think that blowing something up would get their point across.  It’s one thing to watch a bombing in Mumbai.  It’s very different when it’s in your backyard.

About a week later, our company started taking phone calls from customers who needed to get their businesses back on line.  They needed conferencing accounts.  They didn’t want anyone to fly anywhere, even though airplanes were back in the air after a week.  We were surprised how many conference calls started to happen.  People were reviewing business contingency plans, trying to motivate their workforce, and gain a sense of normalcy.  I felt like we were playing a part of helping bring America back.

911 taught me that anything can happen at anytime and when it does, business can be brought to its knees unless you think in advance how to prepare for the worst, hoping it doesn’t happen.  Have a disaster plan.  Have a way to alert your workforce.  Make sure they can work virtually.   911, gas shortages, hurricanes, the swine flu (H1N1) or any other unforeseen disaster may slow us up, but Americans definitely know how get back up and keep moving forward.

Follow Copper Conferencing on Twitter @CopperConf or visit our website at http://www.copperconferencing.com