Managing the Risk in Events

Every event has attendant risks; the first step in managing those risks involves examining all areas of your event to determine where losses can occur. This examination is not limited to safety issues, but can ensure that the event is conducted in the safest possible manner and if something unfortunate does occur that the loss does not further impact the organization either financially or through adverse publicity.

There are four general areas of losses associated with events:

• Personnel

• Property

• Income

• Liability

By examining all areas where losses could possibly occur, you can identify where you may need to purchase additional insurance.  Although the process may not guarantee that you have identified every possible risk factor associated with the event, the exercise will assist with demonstrating your diligence in attempting to identify those you can manage and control and could be a factor in reducing your obligatory insurance costs.

For events the combination of individual risk factors is extremely important in establishing the degree of risk. Changing one aspect of an event may greatly increase the risk factors. Some examples include: if free admission is allowed as a last minute decision that will change the whole nature of risk for the event. If the event is transferred from one location to another with less capacity you may have a serious problem of not being able to seat everyone.

If the weather suddenly changes you may have risks for which you are not prepared