Manage Risk: Create a Plan

By Bonnie Wallsh

As meeting planners, one of our most important roles is to take responsibility for our attendees. It’s an awesome burden. There are many things that are out of our control, such as floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, thunderstorms and lightening, winter storms and extreme cold, extreme heat, fires, hazardous materials incidents and terrorism.

Risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, communicating, and controlling the exposure to risks and determining how to minimize or eliminate those risks, according to Naomi R. Angel, a law partner with Howe & Hutton, Ltd. The onus is on the planner to gather this safety and security data, starting with the request for proposal (RFP). A request for the Risk Management plan for the facility and municipality should be included, and then used as part of the site selection process.

Clear communication is the key to developing a comprehensive plan for your specific event. “It’s about asking the right questions from the get-go,” says Sandy Biback, a certified meeting planner and instructor of a risk management course at Centennial College in Toronto. How many of us ask pertinent questions before booking a venue? For example: Where will the group meet outside if the hotel needs to be evacuated?

Does the venue provide a one-page information sheet about safety/security that can be included in your own plan? If your event could be considered a security risk, have you discussed your concerns with the venue? If so, have they discussed extra security with you? Directed you to the police? If there are other groups meeting at the same time that could attract protestors, how does the hotel plan to handle your group?

Creating your plan

You should start by organizing a risk assessment team. Suggested participants might include association executive board members and chairs, audiovisual manager, billing manager, convention service manager, engineering manager, fire department liaison, food & beverage manager, front desk manager, exposition company manager, facility security director, insurance broker, police liaison, public relations manager, speakers bureau representative, transportation manager and outside suppliers such as the band or disk jockey, décor and florists. Ask each of these participants to compile a comprehensive list of risks associated with your meeting or event. Your next step is to create a formal, written emergency action plan on how to handle each of the potential risks.

The plan needs to address what will be done by whom, when, where and how, and should be integrated with the event facility plan. While you may use a master format, it should be updated or customized for each event. Here are some of the points that need to be included:

• Individual internal and external roles and responsibilities (e.g., event staff versus facility staff, structure of authority, task assignments including alternate personnel, etc.)
• Threats, hazards and protective actions (e.g., range of emergencies the organization is prepared to handle based on an event-specific threat assessment, media plan and spokesperson protocols, etc.)
• Notification, warning and communications procedures for the range of emergencies that might occur
• Key contact lists, including emergency responders, key facility responders, assigned staff and duties, key personnel to be contacted in off-hours emergencies, and a list of all attendees and their emergency contacts
• Evacuation, shelters, accounting and shelter-in-place procedures
• Location and use of emergency equipment (e.g., fire extinguisher and AED use)
• Emergency shutdown procedures (shutdown of machines, equipment or critical systems, securing records and cash, etc.

Insuring against risk

Barbara Dunn, an attorney with Howe & Hutton, Ltd., advises that one of the most effective ways planners can manage risk is to shift the risk to vendors. “An example of risk shifting is indemnification. The concept is that the organization shifts risk to the party that can best control the risk. For example, if the organization is hiring a bus company to transport attendees at their conference, the risk is that the bus will get into an accident and attendees will get hurt. In this case, the organization shifts that risk to the bus company by asking the bus company to indemnify the organization in their contract. The indemnification language states that the bus company will indemnify and hold the organization harmless (from a financial standpoint) from any claims due to the bus company’s negligence.

“Indemnification clauses should be part of every contract as there is always the possibility that the goods or service that is being purchased will cause harm to someone and the organization will be sued,” says Dunn. “By having indemnification in the contract, the organization knows that it will be protected in such circumstances.”

Dunn also advises that planners should do all they can to make sure the risk never happens in the first place. That means meeting planners and their staff are ensuring the safety of their attendees before, during and after the event.

Before the event, planners should use a comprehensive site inspection list to check the facilities to be used for the conference. Special attention should be paid to pathways and lighting. Planners should ensure that extra signage and personnel are present to ensure the safety of attendees. Often this means having security and personnel stationed in key entrance and exit areas to facilitate traffic.

After the meeting, planners should follow up promptly on any complaints of safety problems or issues. Any problems should be thoroughly investigated and then followed up with the person who reported the problem.

Dunn also recommends risk retention insurance. “When an organization purchases insurance, it is agreeing to ‘retain’ the risk (up to the dollar amount of the deductible),” she explains. “Everything in excess of that deductible is covered by the insurance company.”

General commercial liability insurance is often referred to as GCL or CGL, or errors and omissions insurance. This insurance is the backbone of any organization’s insurance coverage; it protects against personal injury or death among other things. For example, if an attendee who slipped and fell at its meeting sues the organization, this liability insurance would cover the cost of defending the lawsuit along with paying any damages awarded against the organization.

As with the indemnification provision, it is important to have the organization’s lawyer and insurance representative involved in the review of liability insurance to ensure the organization is getting comprehensive coverage. Of particular concern is the list of exclusions, i.e., those items that are not covered under the policy. Liquor liability claims are typically excluded from general commercial liability insurance. Given the risk, meeting planners should ensure that their organizations have obtained an endorsement or rider to have such claims covered under the policy.

Directors and officers liability insurance is another type of insurance in which the directors, officers and other key personnel are protected by insurance in the event they are individually named in a lawsuit. Property and casualty insurance covers equipment and other property owned by the organization against fire, theft or other damage.

Event cancellation insurance protects the revenue and costs associated with the organization’s conference if the meeting has to be canceled entirely or shut down earlier than scheduled due to weather problems or transportation strikes. Groups that had to cancel spring meetings in Mexico due to the government orders surrounding the H1N1 outbreak benefited greatly from having event cancellation insurance in place, says Dunn.

Assessing security risks

Security was a high priority at a conference in Philadelphia last August for a non-profit association composed of local societies researching their Jewish genealogy. There were two major areas of concern — the health and medical needs of attendees and threats from outside groups. The participants were predominantly older and many had special physical, hearing and dietary requirements. A venue was selected that would enable the group of approximately 800 people to meet in distinct areas separate from other groups. As part of the risk assessment plan, all attendees were asked to indicate special needs on their registration forms and each respondent as contacted to ascertain specific
requirements.

Since the Consulate General of Israel was scheduled to speak at the conference, the Philadelphia Police Department’s Dignitary Protection Unit, Homeland Security Division, was also involved both prior to and during the conference. The conference was held shortly after the murder of a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and a warning had been sent to the group that several people would be picketing the hotel, protesting the group’s religious affiliation.

The conference concluded with no incidents, attributed in large part to the security coordinated by Captain Walt Smith, Commanding Officer, Homeland Security Unit/Domestic Preparedness Division. Even if your event does not have a high-risk profile, Captain Smith advises meeting planners to coordinate their events with local agencies. “I would suggest that every stage of planning — from notifications and evacuations to risk management — includes communications with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

“Successful prevention or mitigation of potential terrorist-related attacks and natural disasters requires pre-planning, which is critical for successful emergency response. By partnering with law enforcement agencies in the early planning stages, you’ll have a better understanding of the overall threat, including recent crime information as well as potential threats directed towards either the event or the facility. Although, not every event will result in an emergency situation, communication with law enforcement agencies in the early stages of event planning will result in a safer more secure event environment, in addition to increasing public/private partnerships for the safety of all.”

Bonnie Wallsh, MA, CMP, CMM, chief strategist of Bonnie Wallsh Associates, LLC, Charlotte, N.C., is a co-presenter of the planners’ boot camp, as well as other educational sessions, at Connect Marketplace.

Top 10 Tips for Risk Management

1. Remember to have multiple communication methods. In this era of cell phones and texting, it is imperative that staff members are trained to use low-tech means of communication. In a crisis, first responders may tie up communications. Runners should be designated to convey information in case cell phones or venue communications are unavailable.

2. Don’t depend on hotel security. While venue security may be top notch, you need to work with local law enforcement and CVBs to understand situations from multiple viewpoints. For example, venue security may believe there is no threat due to a worker strike, but law enforcement may have additional intelligence that contradicts that assumption.

3. Training: If venue and meeting staff do not train for crisis management and discuss options, then all the planning in the world will not suffice. Training may illuminate flaws or highlight proper procedures that can be stressed to all participants.

4. Use technology to augment your information, but don’t rely on it as your sole provider. As mentioned in the communication point above, sometimes low-tech is the way to go. For example, while the Internet can provide details on current events, it may not have the specific information necessary to modify your plan, such as street closures or flooding.

5. Consider designating two talking heads to interface with the media. Depending on the size of your staff, it is helpful to have a primary and secondary PR designee. If the primary PR spokesperson is not available, you’ll have a trained, well-prepared backup.

6. Not all threats/issues come from attendees. Speakers may cause problems, too.  Threats are everywhere when it comes to contentious events or meetings. Sometimes your speaker may be the one who creates more problems. Make sure you have a plan to remove a speaker from the lectern, if necessary, and rehearse how to handle those sensitive situations.

7. Evacuation plans need to be augmented with transportation and weather data. Despite the best of intentions, your evacuation plan may be derailed if first responders or other unknowns have obstructed your primary route. In addition, weather may force you to remain at your meeting location, so be prepared for staying put.

8. Use a third party to assess the risk. The phrase, “You can’t see the forest for the trees” could apply to a crisis at your event. Having a neutral party assess not only the risks, but also your plan itself, may provide you with insight and changes that will improve your ideas and give you piece of mind.

9. Limit the size of your crisis management team. Those folks who have a monetary or public relations stake in the meeting should always be on the team. Include a key representative from both venue and client sides, but don’t try to get everyone involved. The fewer bodies on the team, the quicker decisions can be reached.

10. Plan for multiple scenarios. Threats or problems can either cause additional issues or may be a product of planning by outside entities that want to confuse and create panic.  A bomb threat and a small fire in a bathroom may be enough to cause you to delay or cancel your meeting, but evaluate your responses based on real-time information, rather than out of fear of more issues coming your way.

Source: Brad A. Goldberg, CEO, TriGold Consulting, LLC, “Risk Management and Contingency Planning Solutions for Meeting Professional.”