When it comes to event planning, ensuring the safety of attendees and people on site is important to the success of your event. This is because if a crisis was to emerge, the way in which you deal with the crisis is what will be remembered and will help ensure the success of your next event. Although it’s impossible to plan for every accident or incident, having a crisis management plan in place can help you to manage a crisis calmly and effectively.
The importance of having a crisis management plan
Having a crisis management plan in place is essential to event planning. The purpose of it is to ensure that you are protecting your event and most importantly, your attendees, from the potentially devastating effects of a crisis.
A well thought out plan with an effective communication strategy can help to ensure you can manage a crisis should it arrive.
We’ve gathered the key elements to building your crisis management plan:
- Start with a risk assessment. By using the list of common crisis’ in the event industry below, you can start to assess how you can deal with these events and put relevant contingency plans in place. For example, for a medical emergency you will want to ensure you have a first aider on site. For a technical failure, you may want to ensure you have something for attendees to focus on whilst it is being fixed, or for a weather crisis, you may want to ensure you have sufficient indoor space to bring your guests inside.
- Communication planning. Ensure you have channels set up to communicate with your staff as well as event attendees should you need to. For example, using social media to make announcements, sending out emails to provide early warnings, using mobile phone numbers for more immediate emergencies or event apps as a central place for attendees to receive notifications. You could also consider headsets or other communication software to stay in touch with staff on the ground.
- Briefing the time onsite. Before the start of the event, it’s important to gather all staff to a central point to go through any specific roles should a crisis occur. It’s also an opportunity to check nothing has gone amiss. It’s also important to ensure anybody supporting the event remotely is involved in the briefing.
- Refine your strategy for future events. After your event, it’s a good idea to gather team members and gain their insight into how they think the day went. As everybody will be responsible for different areas of the event, you should be able to obtain a well-rounded view point on how you can create an even more robust plan in the future.
Common crisis’ in the event industry
Weather crisis
This is when the weather changes unexpectedly during an outdoor event.
Technical failures
This includes the failure of technology such as the internet going down, live streaming crashing, no sound output, or lighting failures.
PR crisis
This can happen when an important guest speaker goes off script and makes controversial claims.
Medical emergencies
This can occur when somebody at the event requires medical attention such as an accident, medical condition, allergic reaction.
Fire
Fired can start suddenly and spread quickly, and they can occur anywhere in the venue
Fights and arguments
This can happen particularly when there are large crowds involved in events
Real-life case studies of crisis management successes and failures
Tips for post-crisis evaluation and improvement
It’s important to evaluate the effectiveness of your crisis management plan. A great way to do this is by gathering feedback from attendees, staff or team members, suppliers, as well as anybody else who was either on site or supporting the event remotely. You can then collate the feedback and separate it into themes to ensure they are addressed and identified as areas of improvement with all employees involved.
It’s also good to respond to everybody who gave feedback to reassure them that you have taken their comments seriously and will investigate any issues in more detail. This provides reassurance to your guests, team members and suppliers to ensure that they consider working with you or attending your event in the future in the future. It can also be used as a tool to convert the crisis into an opportunity by staying in touch with your attendees or offering discounts or incentives due to their experience.
As an event organiser, it can be difficult to think of everything. That’s where we at Whitespace Xpo come in. Our experts can help to build plans tailored to your event and provide you with peace of mind and support at your event. Get in touch with us today.
