创纪录暴雨打乱IMEX America 2026赴拉斯维加斯行程，行业反思气候应急预案

Skift Take

By the time IMEX’s show floor opens Tuesday, Sunday's record rain will be forgotten. The lesson shouldn’t be: A destination’s weather history is no longer a forecast.

Las Vegas set a daily rainfall record Sunday as thousands of event professionals started arriving for IMEX America 2026. The city last broke that record in 2012. IMEX was in town then, too.

Harry Reid International Airport recorded 1.08 inches of rain as of 5 p.m. local time on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. That topped the previous record of 0.78 inches, set in 2012.

Tropical Storm Rachel fueled thunderstorms and flooding across parts of the valley, according to the NWS. The airport warned travelers of possible weather delays on Sunday and Monday.

IMEX's three-day exhibition opens Tuesday, Oct. 13, at Mandalay Bay, but programming starts Monday with Smart Monday, powered by Meeting Professionals International.

For an industry built on contingency planning, the storm tested it in a destination where many planners may be more concerned about the potential impacts of heat on an outdoor event.

Travelers Who Built in a Buffer

Yush Sztalkoper, founder of Human Capacity Design, was delayed for two hours Sunday flying from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. She had deliberately scheduled extra time to reach her hotel, unpack and decompress before her first meeting.

“Planning does not mean predicting exactly what will happen,” Sztalkoper said. “It means not designing everything so tightly that one unexpected change can disrupt my plans.”

The Slack channel run by Club Ichi, a community for event marketers, filled with accounts of delays, cancellations and rebookings, said founder Liz Lathan. Some IMEX-bound travelers reported delays of more than two hours. Others traded tips on where to eat during a three-hour layover.

“Between the hurricane making landfall in the Gulf and the tropical storm that is bizarrely over the desert of Las Vegas today, the joys of travel have come to life,” Lathan said.

A Stormy Future for Big Convention Cities

Sunday's storm was one event, but it’s a sign of what’s ahead. Shawna McKinley, principal of Clear Current Consulting and an expert on climate resilience in events, said planners should focus on the trend.

“Omitting climate projections from site selection and event safety plans creates a business continuity blindspot,” McKinley said.

If global temperatures rise 2.7°F above the pre-industrial average, measured from 1851 to 1900, Clark County is projected to see 14% more days of extreme rainfall each year than in 1991–2020, according to the National Climate Assessment Interactive Atlas Explorer. Extreme rainfall days are those in the top 1% of historical rainfall events.

Other major meeting destinations fare worse. The projections show increases of 30% in Washington, D.C., 21% in Dallas, 19% in Los Angeles, and 15% in New York. Only Chicago, at 11%, comes in below Las Vegas.

Those numbers challenge a core assumption behind site selection: that historical weather reliably guides future risk. And the data is getting easier to find.

“An increasing number of countries are preparing climate assessment maps that can be consulted to help with planning,” McKinley said.

A rain plan is only the starting point, she said.

“Events need to increasingly consider climate adaptation as a core principle. That requires earlier and more holistic thinking that accepts climate uncertainty as a bedrock condition,” McKinley said. “It's no longer just about keeping the onsite experience safe, but finding alternative ways for value to be delivered when gathering isn't possible.”

What to Tell Attendees Right Now

A free toolkit McKinley worked on for the Canadian Live Music Association lays out four principles for communicating extreme weather to an event audience. Pair every weather announcement with a clear action step. Prepare people early, explaining what may happen and why. Treat weather messaging as part of the attendee experience, with a calm tone and transparent decisions. And use the same terminology as public weather alerts.

The Importance of Knowing How – and When – to Pivot

Reina Herschdorfer, director of marketing and public relations for national meetings and events at Caesars Entertainment, is hosting an opening reception Monday at the Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis at Caesars Palace. The outdoor event, which will include a floating sound bath, is one of Caesars' wellness offerings. 

After seeing the forecast, she reserved indoor space as a backup.

“Even in places where it never rains, you can be surprised,” Herschdorfer said. “This is really unusual.”

Las Vegas event veteran Jaki Baskow, CEO of Las Vegas Speakers Bureau and Baskow Talent, got a preview less than two weeks earlier.

She had booked Serpentine Fire, an Earth, Wind & Fire tribute band, and strolling LED performers for a corporate trade show group's poolside reception at ARIA on Sept. 30. Then rain entered the forecast.

“We had to pivot fast,” Baskow said.

At 12:30 p.m., she learned the reception was moving indoors. Performers due at 7 p.m. now had to arrive by 3 p.m. The event ended up on the trade show floor.

A move like that ripples through load-in schedules, staging, food and beverage, entertainment and staffing, all within hours.

“Today, more than ever, we have to be prepared for the unexpected,” Baskow said.