Disaster Parley Proves to Be, Well, a Disaster

CHICAGO — Organizers of the first international disaster conference said today they have come face to face with the real thing--a disastrous lack of interest that forced them to cancel the meeting.

“It is absolutely amazing, given the things that have happened recently, like fires, AIDS, bridge collapses and contamination of the beaches,” said publicist Sandi Eberhard. “Disaster happens to be a topic people would rather not face. Like death, they didn’t want to hear about it.”

Kotch & Poliak, a New York firm that specializes in organizing industrial expositions, had rented Chicago’s McCormick Place, the largest exposition hall in the United States, and a stellar slate of disaster experts had been lined up for the three-day conference in early November.