Despite floods and a boiled water advisory, the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center pulled off the plated dinner for 923 on Oct. 13 for the Lexington Medical Center's Women's Night Out.
A boiled water advisory in Columbia, S.C., after the flooding and dam breaches didn’t stop Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center from hosting a 900-person plated dinner, in an effort that would make even MacGyver proud. Once it became clear the client, Lexington Medical Center, was against canceling their Women’s Night Out event, Kathy Shearer, general manager, Spectra Food Services and Hospitality, and Executive Chef Tom Kaspersky got together to come up with a plan.
“We did it very carefully,” said Kaspersky. “Our biggest concern was operating safely.”
The plan began with hand washing stations, which were rigged out of spigots and garbage cans from a local restaurant supply store.
“It was a great learning experience,” said Shearer. “I went to a restaurant supply place to get the hand washing stations and they didn’t have them. I started looking around and found the spigots and these seven-and-a-half-gallon garbage cans with lids, and they were like, ‘well we think we can do it.’ After we got the hand washing stations issue taken care of, the rest was pretty easy.”
Six makeshift stations worked using five-gallon water jugs that Blue Water Coolers, the conventions center's existing water partner, delivered to the facility daily. That water was used for making beverages, washing things and cooking. No water from the building could be used.
“We use Blue Water Coolers anyway for water coolers rented to customers,” said Shearer, “so we called them up and told them what we were going to do, and they said, ‘we’ve got you!’ So they were bringing us 300 gallons a day. Our whole loading dock was full of water.”
The loading dock also housed ice chests and an ice trailer to hold the 2,500 pounds of bagged ice that was delivered over the week.
Originally, the event was planned as a plated dinner on china with preset tea and water. Once the boiled water advisory kicked in, Shearer said they tried to convince them to make it a buffet, so they could use disposable dishware. But with older attendees, they worked it so the event used all of the convention center’s china and silverware with disposable glassware and tea and coffee made from concentrate.
“To make things more interesting,” said Sarah Cobb, director of Sales, “as we were figuring all this out it was originally planned ahead of time for about 800 people. Then we had no water and we were trying to figure out how to make that work, and their numbers went up.”
The dinner ended up being for 923 people and went off as smoothly as could be hoped, with few changes required for the menu. After the dinner, they ran all the china through the washers using contaminated water and then kept them out on the loading dock in a box truck so no one would accidently use them. Once the advisory was lifted, they brought the dishes in to be sterilized. The silverware could be boiled and used for other events.
“Most restaurants around us were closed for that entire week, because they didn’t have any way to safely operate,” said Cobb. “So it was great to figure out a way to have the events go on safely, and I think our customers really appreciated it.”
For a 350-person luncheon the next day, they rented china from a company that washes their own dishes and stuck with the preselected deli menu that required little cooking. For the remaining smaller events throughout the week the convention center used disposable ware and got creative with continental breakfasts, box lunches and concessions. Cobb said everyone was very understanding of the situation and eager to find a solution that didn’t involve canceling their events.
“The biggest thing was the things that were ordered for concessions and continental was stuff we could find ways to get them what they needed without really having to cook and serve a big meal, besides that dinner,” said Cobb.
A wedding was scheduled for Oct. 10 that originally planned on using the convention center’s china. Cobb said they never discussed with the bride the option of not having the wedding. Instead, the party simply rented china and glassware and had already planned on using an outside caterer.
“I’m sure that bride had a very stressful week,” said Cobb.
Over the week with the flooding and advisory, only two events canceled. An Oct. 5-6 statewide conference was booked when the worst flooding was happening, so they ended up canceling. Then a 400-person dinner event bowed out a week before their scheduled date, not wanting to take the risk.
“As far as revenue setbacks, we just try to keep in stride and move on,” said Cobb “Obviously you’re not going to not refund somebody who’s canceling due to a natural disaster, so you just try to cut your losses and move forward. We’ll try to get those people back for future events and try to have a knockout last quarter to make up for it. But it is what it is.”
It obviously cost the facility more to have to bring in all that water, ice, disposable ware and china, but the customers really seemed to appreciate it, which both Cobb and Shearer hope will lead to repeat business.
“People like to know that we can find solutions,” said Cobb. “I think that’s one of the keys to the event business. A lot of people’s reaction to a moving target, which all the event business is is a moving target, is to kind of freeze up, but to have a team that’s able to slow it down, work through it and find some kind of a solution that works for them, they really appreciate it.”
Already, the Lexington Medical Center is in the process of booking a 700-person dinner in November that will be a new piece of business for the convention center. The fact that it will pay within the same quarter helps as well.
When the advisory was lifted, Shearer said they were still cautious at first.
“We didn’t change anything once that boiled water advisory ended,” said Shearer. “We kept doing the same thing until we knew all that water was out of the building and we got everything serviced. We just kept using our jug water and we’re still using our ice because we have some left.”
Kaspersky said he’d dealt with a boiled water advisory once before early on in his career but nothing of this magnitude. And though this was a first for most of them, Shearer said she’s begun a list for the next time it happens.
“I’ve written down what we’ve done to get back to normal operating, like the ice machines needed to be cycled through and Pepsi has to come in and services our Fountain soda,” said Shearer. “Just a bunch of things like that. So if this is a 1,000-year flood, in 999 years the next group will have this to go by.”
Though they’re used to a busy October at Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, due to the number of meetings and events, the boiled water advisory added a whole new layer to the meaning of “busy.” But as Mack Stone, general manager, said, “the show must go on.”
Interviewed for this story: Mack Stone, Sarah Cobb, Kathy Shearer and Tom Kaspersky, (803) 545-0034