http://www.misoapbox.com/2006/05/attendees_lost_.html
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May 11, 2006
Attendees Lost and Found
Posted by Marshall Krantz
This has got to be a meeting planner's next-to-worst nightmare: People involved in a group-sanctioned function suffer a near-death experience.
That's exactly what happened in Palm Springs this week. Brandon Day was attending a conference sponsored by Securian Financial Group along with his partner, Gina Allen, when the pair got lost while on a hiking excursion in the mountains high above the desert resort.
They spent three, bone-chilling nights in the wilderness before being rescued Tuesday. Miraculously, they found the backpack of a man who himself became lost in the mountains the year before and is now presumed dead. Among his gear were some matches, with which Day and Allen started a fire, thus alerting rescuers to their whereabouts. You can read a more detailed account here.
The excursion was offered through the conference and conducted by a local destination management company, West Coast Transportation & Events, according to Emily Bird, public relations director at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort, where the conference was held.
For more information, Bird referred me to a Tom Burns, who she said was the meeting organizer, and gave me his telephone number. I left messages for Burns and Securian's communications department today but received no reply.
I also telephoned West Coast Transportation & Events. A woman there refused to comment other than to refer me to Tom Burns, with the same phone number that Bird gave me, which is for the area of St. Paul, Minn., where Securian is headquartered. West Coast appears involved but prefers stonewalling to full disclosure.
Clearly, someone--and probably several someones--has some 'splainin' to do. Just exactly how did they misplace a couple of attendees?
As is often the case in these tales of hikers lost, Day and Allen were ill-prepared for a possible emergency. They wore only light clothing, had no food, and carried no survival tools like a whistle, signaling mirror, or matches.
For those meeting planners considering outdoor adventures for their groups, I suggest--after, of course, not losing the attendees--that a day pack complete with survival kit would make a lovely room gift.