What a hectic day September 11, 2001, was going to be. The entire RISMedia team was busily preparing to host 1,250 real estate professionals from across the country, scheduled to arrive that evening for RISMedia 13th Annual CEO & Leadership Exchange at the New York Hilton Midtown. We were extremely excited because this was going to be the largest event to date in our company’s history. Our opening reception was scheduled to take place at the Sky Club on the 56th floor of the Met Life Building, overlooking Grand Central Station and offering unparalleled views of Manhattan, from Central Park all the way down to the World Trade Center towers.
Arriving at the office early the morning of the 11th, the RISMedia team was packing last-minute conference materials onto the truck for a post morning rush-hour departure into Manhattan. Just before 9:00 a.m., less than 10 minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower, one of our editors ran into my office and said, “Did you hear about the plane crash in the city?” At first, I thought he was kidding, however the stunned look on his face told me otherwise. We joined a group of team members already gathered around the television as news commentators struggled to make sense of what had happened, when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower. The shock and raw emotions that permeated the room in that moment is an indelible memory. What appeared to be a terrible airline accident a few seconds prior, was now an unthinkable deliberate attack.
The next several minutes of this tragic day were spent soaking in the information that was broadcast across every media outlet worldwide, desperately trying to process an occurrence for which we had no precedent. What became increasingly clear as the minutes passed slowly by, was that this was a terrorist attack, not just against New York City, but our entire country.
But amidst the grief and horror, decisions had to be made. Priority one was to make sure that any of our team members with a loved one in NYC head home and do their best to find them. The second priority was for everyone to check on their loved ones, no matter where they were located. The third priority was to figure out how to warn the 1,250 attendees heading to New York for our event.
We broke into teams, sending emails and faxes to attendees letting them know the CEO & Leadership Exchange was postponed. Our next priority was to contact the Hilton and the Sky Club. At approximately 9:30 a.m., I reached our conference manager at the Hilton who still had not heard of the attack. At first he said he had no idea what I was talking about and didn’t have the authority to grant a postponement. I asked him to please find his manager as I remained on the line, afraid to lose the connection. Within a few minutes he returned and apologized, sending over the release for 60 days.
From 9:30 a.m. until noon our team exhausted all avenues to contact our attendees, and everyone associated with our conference—vendors, sponsors and speakers. We had about 50 early-bird attendees already check-in at the Hilton and we did our best to contact these people as well. By noon we had done all we could have done and I asked everyone to say a prayer and head home to their loved ones. Little did we know how much our communities and lives were permanently altered.
Seven weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, RISMedia held its postponed, smaller, 13th Annual CEO & Leadership Exchange at the Hilton, where 600 attendees participated. My friends John Heithaus, the late Kevin Crutchfield, also known as “Doc C” and Mark Rivera, gave a stirring performance of “New York State of Mind,” and the attendees rose in a moment of solidarity to “God Bless America.” A proud moment and a tragic time that none of us will ever forget.
I was born and raised right outside of New York City and attended Iona College, a stone’s throw from the Bronx. Most of Iona’s students at the time were from the five boroughs of New York as well as Long Island. My brothers and I were on the 107th floor of the South Tower for Operation Sail on July 4th 1976, our country’s Bicentennial celebration. My brothers and I were also at Ground Zero three days after the attack, when the pile was still smoldering and friends of mine remained hopeful survivors would be found in the rubble. The destruction and the emotion is etched in my mind.
I will be at the Towers again today for the 25th Memorial of the September 11th attacks, paying my respects to all those who lost their lives and the countless families destroyed by these unspeakable attacks. The babies and young children of the victims of 9/11 are now adults, many with families of their own now. I hope that they have found some semblance of peace. My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by 9/11, a day that changed all of us in countless ways.
