Due to bus malfunctions, I was pretty late coming to the session on emergency preparedness/disaster planning, but one takeaway that could be useful to people is to check with government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health to see if there is grant money available to help fund your organization's disaster prep program.
Another point of interest was that, in an emergency situation that affects a large area, such as 9/11, landline and cellphone access can go down, but often you still can get through via text messaging. Session co-leader Danielle Dorling, manager OE/talent management with Home Depot Supply, suggested asking staff (and, to make it meetings-related, attendees) for their cellphone provider information as well as the usual contact info.
Maybe I missed it because it was in the beginning of the session, but again, while this was marked as an M&E session, the part I heard was all about maintaining business continuity and staff issues, not how to deal with an emergency situation at a meeting. Though, to be fair, Dorling did mention that you should know the emergency plans of all your vendors, including any hotels you have contracted with.
asae2007