I was a guest for a corporate event and there was 0 effort to be proactive regarding the bad weather. As a 100% outdoor activity event center located in a flood-prone area, you'd think they'd have a plan. I don't blame the weather on them, but I do expect that they figured out how to create the best experience in spite of it, hours and days before, rather than just shrug and go, 'oh well'. The weather forecast was VERY confident that heavy rain would be there 24+ hours before - all local channels, Space City Weather, Jeff Lindner - it was a SURE thing.
For example, bring the food under the tent BEFORE the time we were supposed to be eating, instead of wasting 45 minutes trying to rig a 'path' so we don't get wet waiting in line, even though the biggest problem there was water pooling and mud. The restroom is about a football field away from the only covered area we could remain, so they should have rented a port-o-potty to be closer, or have those plastic sidings to their golf carts to assist people in the mud and rain. Props to the Sheriff's Deputy that seemed more customer service oriented than the staff - he was telling us what was going on and seemed like he wished he could do more. Meanwhile they said they had a lot of staff milling about because the outdoor activities were canceled - not sure why they weren't pushing all the standing water out of the tent, or passing out food, etc. The store bought cookies they brought out were an after-thought, because they canceled the pre-arranged Funnel Cakes but didn't tell anyone.
There were so many things canceled or cut short that still could have been managed with some preparation - like more tent siding they could drop down to stop rain from coming under the smaller tent.
The food was good, but there was so little of it! I don't think they served the amount that was paid for, we ran out of some things. I can tell they're used to handling young kids, because they were treating us grown adults like we only eat 2 small pieces of brisket, 3 sausage slices and 2 tablespoons of potato salad! I was excited about the petting zoo - I'm sure the animals were safe inside a barn away from the rain. Again, if they had their golf carts prepped for rain, they could have offered to drive us back and forth to see them. There's a lot of risk mitigation that needs to be learned for an event facility such as this - if your event is expecting rain, cancel or reschedule! read more
