Don't send the Secret Service to Handle the Event Manager's Job

Did you read About.com Rob Hard's article this morning titled: Don't send the Secret Service to Handle an Event Manager's Job regarding the White House party crashers?  This clever headline made me chuckle and recall all the silly excuses and attempts (successful and thwarted) we've heard over the years as people try to get into closed events.  If you have a good story please add it in the comments section.

Every year during our Internet company sales conference two or three people always appeared who were not part of the guest list and had actually flown themselves on their own dime (some attempted to get the travel desk to pay - not a brilliant idea) and bunked up with their pals.  They even attended the long sessions - so they weren't just there for the free drinks...

One of my favorite crasher memories (it's funny now, not so funny in the moment) was at a very high brow golf tournament where we entertained many, many VIPs.  Two of the charming sales people, with a few cocktails in them of course, convinced the five star hotel front desk they were the head of Nike Marketing and his collegue but lost their IDs on the golf course - could they please check into their room?  Not only were these two pranksters guilty of upgrading themselves to the nicer hotel, their client actually showed up at 10:30pm.  When I got a call from the sold out hotel that a second "Mr. Nike" just arrived, and not knowing who had checked in earlier, we pulled the nearest host to run into his room and pack up asap.  We learned to warn the hotel front desks at future events not to trust even the smoothest talkers - when in doubt, call the event manager's cell.