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Managing Your Event Risk
By Katja Morgenstern, CMP, Meeting Consultants, Inc
Most of us are familiar with, and many of us have played, the board game RISK® . But planning an event is not a game and there are real risks involved in event management. Being unprepared for even just one major crisis can ruin your reputation as a planner or a company. “How often does a real crisis really happen?” Well, large-scale crises such as hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, fires, or perhaps even building collapses are rare. But what about the smaller crises – the ones that can spread out of control just because you were not thinking of the whole picture?
One of the first steps to starting a risk management plan for your event is to look at the internal and external risks involved. Once you have determined the most likely risks, you can then start to consider your options. Internal risks constitute the greatest potential loss of real money and reputation dollars. What are internal risks?
Below are four of the seven key areas to consider when accessing, planning, managing, and controlling your internal risks.
Personal
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As the lead planner, who would take your place if something happened to you? Who is your backup person? |
Personnel
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Is your staff cross-trained? If something happens to one of your key staff members, who will take their place? |
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Do your staff members have clear task assignments? Do they know each team member’s responsibilities? |
Attendees
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What plan do you have in place to manage crowds? Is your event one that could cause strong emotional reactions among your attendees? Do you have enough security for the number of people you are expecting? |
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Do you have a communication plan in place to notify attendees of changes to the program? |
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Are your attendees aware of the procedures for emergency notification, evacuation routes, exit points, or assembly points? |
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Are you fully utilizing your Web site, conference guide, attendee badges, and conference signage to communicate important changes? |
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Do you have a quick and easy way to access an attendee’s emergency contact or allergy information should you need to? |
Technological
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If you have a power outage, what is the venue’s procedure? How long before the generator restarts the power? How are the exit signs illuminated? Are the signs just visual or is there an audio cue? |
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If you have AV failure, what is the plan to assist the speaker, move the attendees, or repair the problem on-site? |
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What happens if your conference Web site is hacked? How will you know? How will you protect your attendees’ information? |
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Are you able to fully utilize attendees’ smartphones to communicate vital information? Do you have a text messaging system in place? |
Once these basic internal risks have been assessed, you will need to put together a basic risk management plan and there are several key items you should always include. Below is an overview of seven of the twenty items that are event-specific and can be utilized to develop a more in-depth plan, or can be used as a stand-alone “down and dirty” plan.
City Assessment
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Key for every plan are the evacuation routes for any city in which you meet. In this document, include local cab, train, plane, and bus company phone numbers. |
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Include any past high-profile events that have occurred. |
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Include a list of any major city-wide events that may be running concurrent with your event. |
Venue Assessment
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Overview of the venue space. |
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A copy of the venue’s risk management plan. Most venues will be willing to provide you with an abbreviated version of their contingency plan. |
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Has this venue handled your type of conference or meeting before? |
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Exit points from the venue and from the meeting rooms. |
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ADA regulations. |
Call Trees
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This document is vital in starting the notification process of your staff and vendors in the event of an emergency. |
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Designated staff members to take responsibility for calling 10-20 people each. |
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Each call tree is activated by your designated team member, either the overall project lead or a designated “PR Communicator” in your team. |
Black Book of Numbers
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For each event you need to have a “Black Book” of vital numbers. Each team member should have a copy of these numbers. Remember to include local hospital, police, consulate, and embassy phone numbers. |
Timeline of Event
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While this is a time-consuming process, you should have a detailed timeline of your event. In your timeline, note areas of potential risk, e.g., if a keynote speaker does not show up, who is your backup? If there is a strong possibility of heavy crowds during a set time, how will you evacuate if you need to? |
Internal and External Risk Assessment
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This is a key document, especially if you are looking to create a more detailed risk management plan. This document gives you an overview of potential internal and external risks for your specific event. |
Crowd Diagram
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This can either be a simple overview diagram for a “down and dirty” plan, or a more detailed, day by day, hour by hour plan. This will help you quickly look at any potential areas of challenge. |
The information included here is only a basic overview of internal risks and plan items, not a complete package; however, they provide a very good starting point to assess your meeting risks. While there is no way to plan for every known crisis, planning for known potential risks makes it easier to react to the unplanned crisis. Challenges occur with any event. The key is to have a solid backup plan for the challenges that could occur. Clients go into an event knowing that unusual things may happen, but the art of successful risk management is keeping the challenges and chaos away from the client. Being able to smoothly execute a Plan B without missing a beat is crucial in today’s fast-paced environment. As the planner, you have to take an active role in preparing your emergency action plan to protect your staff, your vendors, your client, your reputation, and your attendees.
Contact us today and find out more.
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