Meeting News - February 25, 2008 - (Page 35)

Live from the Forum @ MeetingNews.com TOPIC: Assessing safety and security at meetings read an article about the shooting in the city council in Kirkwood, MO [Ed: On Do you have a burning question to Feb. 7, Charles Lee Thornton entered a Kirkwood city council meeting and killed ask your peers? Log on to the ﬁve people. Thornton shot two others, including the mayor, before police shot and MeetingNews Forum to get answers killed him.] I recalled a meeting we did prior to 2001 for a large judiciary organization, fast. meetingnews.com/forum at which, among other participants, were state and international supreme court justices and others of similar rank. Before the meeting, we briefed the convention center staff and client’s staff on all aspects of safety and security, including how better to read people. A woman came to registration, dressed well (that is, appropriately for the meeting), carrying a briefcase (not unusual for this crowd), and chit-chatted with registration staff while she ﬁlled out an on-site form. But something in her behavior alerted the registration staff, who contacted us in code. We alerted security, who met me at registration to chat with this woman. The rest of the story: She had a loaded gun in her briefcase and was there to shoot the judge on a case in which she was involved. The [Feb. 7 story], the incident noted above, and the general lax security in hotels and convention centers made me wonder: Will we ever be smart enough to have better security at large venues? Nothing prevents someone from going into a convention center or a hotel and causing mass or personal damage. I Joan Eisenstodt, Owner, Eisenstodt Associates LLC, Washington, DC Unfortunately, until new technology emerges that permits “long-distance” or mass security inspection, the only resolution is to have airport-type security in every public place—hotels, public buildings, libraries, schools—and where does one apply exceptions? Hospitals, police stations, grocery stores Then, the ﬁghts over civil liberties will start. Tony Maiorino, Senior Director of Expositions and Meetings Scherago International, Jersey City, NJ I worked on a large public event in 2002 in Virginia Beach and we were told by the city and feds that our event would be a terrorist target, which also increased our insurance liability. Some of you may be wondering why an event in Virginia Beach would be a terrorist target, but it is now home to all U.S. Navy ﬁghter and attack aircraft, as well as the large naval base at Norfolk. We talked about security in great length with our committee and what we could do to reduce the risk. We all need to look at security measures and know who our audience is to determine the risk factors and how to deal with them in a way that our budgets allow. If you are traveling in some countries, hotels have airport-type security, but here in the States we believe that those things can’t happen to us; they have, but we have seem to have forgotten about them some. We are all pressed to reduce the cost of meetings and to increase the bottom line; until security becomes an issue, we won’t put much emphasis on it. But we all should have our contingency plans for different types of threats, from a disgruntled employee or other individual, to protecting a guest speaker—at least think of them and have a plan, and hope you never have to use it. We are all in the business to make sure the event happens and be ready for the unexpected. Christopher Noyes, Events and Program Director Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, Reston, VA A risk assessment should be done for every event—every event! Possible threats and vulnerabilities exist in every aspect of an event, from contracts, to speakers and registration materials, to meals. I believe that part of the problem is that risk management is not what drew people to this profession—travel, creative designs, and making sure people are connecting, learning, and enjoying themselves are the draws. However, I also believe that proper risk management will add value to our services as event organizers, setting us apart from our competition and eventually making safety, security, and contingency plans important to our clientele and worthy of proper budget allocation. Julia Rutherford Silvers Author of Risk Management for Meetings and Events, Albuquerque, NM This might be a tedious process in due diligence, but it is an important one that shouldn’t be neglected on the part of any stakeholder. We recently produced an event for a client. Note, they always choose the location, and we provide the special event components. Part of the protocol for any event is a “policies and procedures” packet we hand out to the hotel, suppliers, and any contracted event staff or entertainment. I was shocked to ﬁnd out there was no formal safety/security statement. First, I was told it was a two-minute response time to the site for police or ﬁre department, and later ﬁve to 10 minutes—that’s a big difference in a life-threatening situation. But what really surprised me was no one was trained in the very basic levels of emergency response, even CPR. I was also surprised to learn they didn’t have a portable deﬁbrillator on site. I was advised by the director of F&B that they were advised by their legal counsel that it placed them at too much risk. The hotel we worked in a few weeks prior had each manager on duty trained in CPR and emergency ﬁrst-aid, as well as a portable deﬁbrillator. Gloria Nelson, Chief Experience Ofﬁcer Gloria Nelson Event Design LLC, Winneconne, WI MEETING NEWS (ISSN 0145-630X, USPS No.356-010, February 25 2008, Vol. 32, No. 4 is published semi-monthly except for August, which is monthly, by Nielsen Business Media, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003-9595, tel. 646654-5000. Subscriptions are offered free of charge to individuals actively engaged in planning meetings or conventions in the U.S. and Canada. The cost of a subscription to non-qualiﬁed subscribers is $79 in the U.S. and $95 in Canada (Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40031729). The cost of a foreign subscription, payable in U.S. dollars, is $195. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing ofﬁces. MeetingNews is a trademark owned exclusively by Nielsen Business Media. Copyright © 2008 by Nielsen Business Media Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this magazine, in whole or in part, is prohibited unless authorized by the publisher. For address changes (please include mailing label), single copy sales ($10 per issue including shipping and handling, prepayment required), subscription information, and other customer service inquiries, write to MEETING NEWS, P.O. Box 1189, Skokie, IL 60076-8189 or call 847-763-9050. Printed in the USA. POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to MEETING NEWS, P.O. Box 1189, Skokie, IL 60076-8189. www.meetingnews.com February 25, 2008 MeetingNews 35 http://www.meetingnews.com/forum http://www.meetingnews.com/forum http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - February 25, 2008

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