Earthquake Ends Show
A 6.8-magnitude earthquake — the first in Seattle since 1965 — ended the net.marketing show Feb. 28, driving terrified attendees from the Washington State Convention & Trade Center.
The quake struck at 10:54 a.m. while attendees of the Direct Marketing Association’s biannual Internet show sat in sessions or toured the exhibit hall. As intense jolts that bounced people in their chairs turned to violent shaking, some attendees ran from the building while others dove beneath tables.
“I was in the exhibit hall when the room started shaking,” said Zack Mandell of Rawhide Internet Services. “I got under the doorway and saw 2,000 people running toward me.”
People could be seen dashing for the stairs and escalators with their hands covering their heads as ceiling tiles and dust rained from the ceiling. Some were screaming, while others called for calm, shouting, “Don’t run.” Two minor injuries were reported.
The conference center, built to sustain earthquakes into the 7s on the Richter scale, suffered no structural damage.
Until the earth moved, many said the show was lackluster, with very few end users attending. “Not only did we not have anyone to sell to, there was no benefit networking,” says Linda Huntoon, client management officer at the New York brokerage division of Weehawken, NJ-based ClientLogic Specialists Marketing Services.
Attendance totaled 1,659, with 136 companies exhibiting.
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