I was doing an event for 3200 people in California and it was a really big deal. I had two stage managers with headsets counting down 30 seconds till show time, a personal assistant and complete video crew for tape and image projection. Everything was hustle and bustle and rush, rush, rush.
I had another bunch of assistants who, on cue, were going to distribute plastic glow stars so the whole room would be lit with the stars for the grande finale where I had blacked out the room.
The entire production went off without a hitch. People had a great time. Afterwards I was busy shining my halo ... until the production company head came up to me and said, 'We have a problem.' ... I did not have a clue what he meant. He told me the assistants were throwing the stars into the crowd and one of them hit an attendee in the eye and scratched his cornea ...
Talk about your heart sinking. No one knew if he was going to be OK or not. He was on his way to the hospital. ... It was six weeks before he found out if the damage was permanent or not. Luckily, he ended up with a badly scratched cornea and he is perfectly alright now. I had let all the hoopla get in the way of my normal briefing of my assistants and it almost cost someone their eyesight ... BE CAREFUL!
