It's been discussed on gun boards since it was first announced. Quite a bit of the discussion centers around the :realism" aspect the planners seem to be looking for - that the conferees will be encouraged/allowed to respond to this as if it were i fact the genuine Zombie Apocolypse.
I, for one, am looking forward to that being on Pay-per-View. Zombie(s) bust in on a roundtable discussion of bottled water distribution and armed cops from all points in the room start snappimg off headshots. (Cops do know to shoot zombies in the head, don't they?) Sweeeeet!
On a more serious note - do the planners of these sorts of "events" not bother to consider that if they don't inform the responding half of the participants that it will be a drill, some may ignore or not hear the "This is a drill" notice at least at the very beginning? Back when I was assigned to Civil Disturbance duty while in the military, it was always stressed that any riots/ambushes we encountered during training were to be considred as drills and full-force response was NOT allowed - except for deploying the water cannon/fire hoses. It was disorienting enough getting ambushed by a bunch of hippies with high-and-tight haircuts to begin with. Going full-force against them would have added to the confusion and resulted in some serious injuries as our mission was to take them down, secure them, and pass beyond them while the next wave of "good guys" came along to pick them up and take them away.
stay safe.