From Appetizers to Air Filtration

I was perusing a social media feed for event planners when I came across the most outlandish guest request I think I’ve seen to date. We never encounter these, right? A registered attendee emailed an event planner several days before the multi-day, 1000+ person event, and made an accommodation request. Absolutely! As planners and event hosts, we want to make any “reasonable accommodation” within our capabilities so every attendee can experience the event in the most enjoyable and comfortable manner.

At events past, I have ensured there was a ramp onto the stage for a speaker in a wheelchair. I have checked on the width of hallways and doorways, confirmed there were accessible hotel rooms, and arranged transportation for those who were differently-abled. I have also championed translation and transcription services of general and breakout sessions so guests who speak a language other than English could engage with the content, and those with hearing deficiencies could use the closed-captioning feature to participate. I have scheduled in-room refrigerators for medications, rented oscillating fans, humidifiers, and dehumidifiers; purchased dog bowls, distilled water, and extra signage, and selected meals for every type of dietary need known to man. Not to mention the year+ of ever-evolving social distancing and mask regulations which provided us an ever-moving target of accommodations to make.

However, this request, in my opinion, not only takes the cake, but is out of bounds. I suffer from airborne allergies. I can have an allergic reaction to something as mundane as someone’s body soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, or the pet dander on their clothing as they sit next to me in a session. It doesn’t even have to be the perfume they bathed in that morning. I am also so highly allergic to latex so much so that if there have been balloons in a ballroom within a few days before my event, I can’t even go into the space. I will literally break out in hives all over my body and my airway will close up. So I understand “reasonable” accommodation requests when made. I also understand my responsibility to bring my own pillows, move away from the heavily-perfumed lady, and stay out of rooms where latex balloons have been. I don’t expect the world to revolve around me.

This attendee apparently does. The request was for Hepa filters to be installed in the vents of every room she would be in during the event. A very broad request. Clearly I have some questions. Mind you this is a multi-day large event at a convention center. There’s no way to know which of the myriad of rooms of the venue this one lady will be in. Plus, she’s got to move between rooms; what will she do in the hallways, or the bathrooms for that matter? And how will she be traveling to the venue? I’m certain the airlines are not going to make special accommodations for her breathing needs, nor the airport she needs to get through on her way to and from the event, or the car or taxi she’ll be riding in to and from the hotel. And to top it all off, she didn’t request the installation of a Hepa filter in her hotel room. Not even a portable air filtration device to be placed there. Maybe she’s bringing her own.

I’m creative enough and have been at this long enough to brainstorm a couple of options for her, but I can guarantee, she’d want none of that. She wants what she wants and that’s that. This planner is not going to be able to make accommodations that will make it safe enough for this lady to attend in her mind. Some options the planner can suggest is for her to purchase a personal air filtration device that she wears which will filter air in her personal space. That would take care of a lot of issues. The planner could put a stand-alone air purifier in her hotel room, but that’s not what she asked for. The planner could encourage this lady to stay in the same room for all of the breakout sessions throughout the event so an air purifier could be placed in the room where she’ll be, but surely the speaker or the subject matter wouldn’t interest her.

At a minimum, the planner can inform the lady of the purification methods the hotel and convention center already have in place, recommend she contact the airport and airline to inquire as to what their air purification methods are, and recommend she schedule a private car transport between the airport and the hotel, informing the company of her air purification needs, but those are out of the planner’s control. A refund of her ticket and a link to watch the replay videos at a discounted rate seem to be in everybody’s best interest.

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