Six risk discussions

This past fall, I had the opportunity to attend Meeting Professionals International’s (MPI) second annual Thought Leaders Summit, benefiting the MPI Foundation. MPI presented a global, pan-industry assembly of thought leaders, government officials, first-responders, law-enforcement and security professionals during the Thought Leaders Summit to discuss the six main issues of risk management that will help meeting and event organizers plan more secure gatherings. The six topic areas were:

 

• Risk/Threat/Vulnerability & Capability Assessment
• Event Safety & Security Plan
• People Movement & Management
• Vendor, Facility & Staff Management
• Technology, Information Management & Data Security
• Communication, Recovery & Evaluation

Attendees participated in six discussions around these key crisis management topics, moderated by facilitators from the National Center for Spectator Sport Safety and Security (NCS4). After the summit, the best practices formulated by these group discussions will be reviewed and subsequently published by MPI as a reference guide. This meeting was the first step in a five-year process that will create the first global gold standards for safety and security for meeting and event organisers. It was a valuable conversation to share best practices and learn about what others are or are not doing.

It is imperative that planners have strategies to prevent and respond to unanticipated extraordinary crimes, violence, terrorist attacks and natural disasters, to ensure the safety and security of meeting attendees.Yet, many planners do not have a risk management plan in place. I see this summit, as well as other initiatives in the Events Industry Council organisations and the Events Industry Council itself, as ways to help better prepare planners to write and execute these plans. 

There is a lot of education around this topic available.I searched the CMP Preferred Provider Continuing Education database by the keyword, "risk" and it returned three pages of educational resources in this database alone.Be sure to keep up to date on risk management as approaches change based on the most recent events.Stay current through education, training and new resources such as the Events Industry Council’s Safety, Security and Risk Management Guidebook, cited in the lead story in this month’s newsletter.