From the Mid-South to the Northeast, business events taking place between January 24 and January 27 had to make last-minute decisions to ensure safety but also minimize financial loss.
In Nashville, snowfall was followed by one inch of ice that caused power outages across more than 230,000 homes and businesses on Saturday, January 24 and Sunday, January 25.
As a result, planners of the National Small Business Conference that was set to begin at Gaylord Opryland Resort on the evening of January 25 issued this notice to attendees early that morning:
“We fully recognize this continuously evolving storm has caused severe disruptions. Due to these circumstances, we are offering any impacted attendees a registration refund or deferral to the 2026 Alaska Regional Conference or 2027 National Small Business Conference. For attendees who are already onsite, we will be proceeding with the event and provide programming with an updated agenda.”
Same Storm, Different Region
In the Northeastern U.S., New York City’s Jacob Javits Center was hosting two major consumer events when 15 inches of snow fell in Manhattan on January 25 and 26: the Discover Boating New York Boat Show (January 21-25) and the New York Travel and Adventure Show (January 24-25). Both shows closed early, at 2 p.m. ET on January 24, and did not operate on January 25.
Unfortunately, 145 miles north of New York City and fully 800 miles from Nashville, the American Council of Engineering Companies’ New York chapter (ACEC-NY) was set to bring together nearly 600 attendees, exhibitors, speakers and staff for its annual winter conference at the Albany Capital Center in Albany, New York from January 25 to 27.
But with 18 inches of snow coming to that city on January 25, flights into and out of Albany for January 24 and January 25 were canceled, while New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency that likely triggered a force-majeure situation for the event organizer anyway.
ACEC-NY postponed the event and posted the following message on its website and Instagram page:
