Never underestimate the determination of conventioneers to reach their learning and networking objectives, even when Mother Nature delivers a forceful blow.
The Texas FFA State Convention, a gathering of more than 12,000 agriculture teachers and students, ran headlong into Hurricane Beryl on Monday, July 8—the scheduled opening day of its 96th annual event at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.
With several inches of rain and strong winds hitting the city that day, organizers were forced to cancel days one and two of the five-day convention. This included an agri-science fair plus a rodeo, while the opening party was moved to Tuesday evening and the opening general session was moved to Wednesday. The planning team also revised the itinerary for the remaining three days to squeeze in some of the postponed sessions.
Organizers interviewed for a report by MySanAntonio.com noted that their “leadership monitored the weather and road conditions [ahead of] the convention, [and] it was necessary to encourage local school officials to determine whether travel to the convention was feasible and safe."
But even a storm powerful enough to knock out electricity at the convention center for most of July 8 didn’t deter attendees—many of them still made their way from their hotels to the convention center that day to interact and accomplish their goals.
Attendees met in prefunction spaces that offered natural light and also used their laptops and cell phones to have sufficient light in breakout rooms.
The Texas FFA Foundation shared photos on Facebook of workshops conducted without electricity. Two of them are below.
