“Within 72 hours, we had almost a 100 percent cancellation rate on all March events,” Choura says. “I have never cried so much in my life — on behalf of my employees who are now out of work. I went through 9/11, the recession in ‘08. I’ve never encountered anything like this.”
“During those first 72 hours, I started thinking: Hospitals are going to need our help,” Choura says. “I was like, ‘I know how to build temporary facilities. I could do this.’ So, we started calling our local hospitals.” “You really use the same skill set building hospital structures as you do event spaces,” he says. “The difference is that you’re creating something for a patient that will potentially help save their life. I saw the first structure the day that it opened. It was so intense. I came back and I told my team, ‘Listen, when you see this in person, you are going to be changed. When you see COVID in person, the way medical experts are treating it — you are going to think differently about it.