Meeting News - June 16, 2008 - (Page 40) State of the Industry: MN Exclusive Research Formal risk management strategies are rare among planners By A.E. Smith ore than five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the latest MeetingNews survey reveals that risk management is only of moderate interest to planners. Of the nearly 350 corporate and association planners surveyed, just 16 percent indicate that risk management is extremely important, and more than half (55 percent) admit they have no formal strategies in place on how to handle emergencies. The amount of attention paid to security, evacuation routes, and backup strategies varies substantially among companies. Many rely on third-party vendors and partners to stay on top of emergency procedures. Just over half of the planners surveyed discuss safety issues with suppliers in pre-con meetings. About 30 percent draw up detailed emergency strategies with contact information, and around the same number discuss plans for emergency evacuation. However, 29 percent of respondents admit that they don’t discuss the issue with suppliers at all. Many planners feel that risks from earthquakes, cyclones, terrorism and pandemics are slight and too unlikely to be of much concern. Susan Piel, a conference director for Washington, DC-based media company Hanley Wood, plans corporate conferences between 100 and 700 participants all around the country. She only considers possible M Double-check everything. A lot of mismanagement can be avoided if you check ahead of time. emergency situations when an event involves a celebrity or high-profile figure who might require extra security. When it comes to disasters, “I really haven’t thought about it much,” said Piel. “Our company thinks that doesn’t affect us.” In fact, according to Robyn Williams, an independent planner who works with small and midsize businesses through RW Business Management Services in Moreno Valley, CA, a contingency plan is a necessity, and a pre-event site inspection is a good time to look into emergency response and develop backup strategies. He advised, “sit down with the people who are going to be there with you and go through everything.” If Williams can’t visit the site more than a day or two prior to the meeting, he has his contact at the event space send pictures and a schematic that includes emergency information. His planning includes alternative venues and accommodations for attendees in case a meeting space or hotel is rendered unavailable. To date, however, the worst disasters Williams has dealt with include a false fire alarm and a kitchen power outage, and he said the biggest risk he plans for is equipment failure. He doesn’t see the need for a formal risk management policy.“You have to look at each [meeting] individually. I’ve never had two that were the same,” he said.“The biggest thing is to double-check everything. A lot of mismanagement can be avoided if you check ahead of time.” On average, the issue of risk management is less important to association planners than their corporate counterparts. This may be because corporate planners are more likely to have policies imposed by upper management (34%, versus 12% for association planners), and they also are more likely to have worked with a risk management consultant (7%, versus 2% for association planners). Pressure from the top is an issue for Dana Neill, director of member services at the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors in Washington, DC. She plans between 15 and 20 small executive meetings per year and currently has an informal approach to risk management. “I’ve never had to cancel an event. I guess I’ve been lucky so far—not even a medical emergency,” she said. But risk management is “becoming a topic of discussion— driven by our executives.” She expects to begin developing an official policy this year. As more internal meeting planners like Neill begin to formalize their risk strategies, they are likely to look to the independent meeting community for guidance. Around 15 percent of survey participants said that an outside meeting planner had created their companies’ existing risk management strategies. Neill would like to see some industry events on the topic.“Maybe [we could] bring together meeting planners who are going through this and develop a standardized plan,” she suggested. “Each organization is going to be different, but maybe we could put together a list of best practices.” SOI Origin of Policies Where do your risk management strategies come from for your meetings? We don’t have formal risk management strategies Meeting planners must customize risk management for each program Risk management mandate and/or policy comes from C-level executives Meeting planners have created risk management strategies for the company 29.4% 22.3% 34.4% 12.0% 14.7% 14.9% 44.8% 64.0% Risky Business How important is risk management to your programs, using a 1-5 scale where 1 means not at all important and 5 means extremely important? 5= Extremely important 18.7% 13.7% 22.9% 4 17.6% 29.5% 3 36.3% 24.1% 2 19.2% 4.8% 13.2% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% Corporate Planners Association Planners Company has hired 6.7% risk management consultants to assess 1.7% programs *Other 3.1% 1.1% Corporate Planners Association Planners 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% * Other responses were: Board of Directors Company has risk management department My meetings are for governing boards; no risk management Risk management policy from executive management Self-insured Upper level managers have gotten involved in events. We include our risk strategies within our vendor agreements 1= Not at all important 0% Source: MeetingNews survey of 348 meeting planners Source: MeetingNews survey of 338 meeting planners 40 MeetingNews June 16, 2008 www.meetingnews.com http://www.mimegasite.com/mimegasite/research/index.jsp http://www.meetingnews.com
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