Dan Ganousis' Moment

DAC, Las Vegas, 1996. I was the VP Marketing at VeriBest and thought we had everything covered. On the morning of the first day of exhibits, our booth operations manager decided to go for a jog to offset the misery of standing in one place for 9 hours that was to follow. Well, just a reminder - it's the desert in June - and even at 7am it's HOT and the humidity is like .1%.

I recall the announcement on the loud speakers that DAC would be open in 10 minutes ... I scurried around our booth like an expectant father making sure everything was in order. Walked up to our booth operations manager to thank him for his fine effort - and just as we started speaking his eyeballs rolled back and I was staring at the whites of his eyes. He fell forward into my arms like a limp dish towel ... there I am standing in the middle of my booth 10 minutes before the opening bell sounds with no idea why our employee had just passed out.

Lots of scrambling around and gasps from the other VeriBest employees - a medical cart arrives in our booth with flashing red lights to take our fallen comrade to get medical assistance. Just then, the doors of the hall swing open and DAC attendees start streaming in. Why o why I didn't pick a booth in the back, away from the front door! All I could do is look up at the first person walking by and say "Our new tools are so HOT people are dying in our booth already!".

Needless to say, I was excited to have DAC back in SF where dehydration from running seldom occurs! Our ops manager got 2 bags of IV at the medical clinic and was back to work in a couple hours ... I learned later they call dehydration the "Vegas Flu".