Risk Management Plan for Events
An event is full of uncertainties like power failure, equipment
failure, medical emergency, brawl, stampede, fire, sponsorship
withdrawal, last minute turned down by an artist etc. How
will you deal with all these contingencies without a well thought
out risk management plan.
Risk management is done at each and every stage of event production. For e.g. when risk management is done in the information management field, then it deals with loss of data due to data theft or hard disk crash. When risk management is done in the security management field, then it deals with brawl, stampede, medical emergency, accidental fire etc.
Similarly there are risks associated with: human resource, finance, marketing, quality management, attendees, food and beverages management, programs, technical management, infrastructure, logistic, procurement and team management.
Developing Risk Management Plan for Events
Since risk management is a very important part of event management therefore it should be carried out in a planned and professional manner. Following steps are involved in risk management:
Step 1: Identify those elements or activities which could carry
a risk.
A list of such elements is already specified above like
information management, security, procurement etc.
Step 2: Identify the risks associated with each element or activity.
For e.g. cargo theft is associated with logistic management.
Similarly, data loss is associated with information management.
Step 3: Determine the possibility of occurrence of the risk
and the severity of the consequences if the risk does happen.
For e.g.
|
Elements |
Risk |
Possibility |
Severity |
|
Information Management |
Loss of data |
Low |
Very high |
|
|
Data theft |
High |
High |
|
|
Data Corruption |
Very high |
Very high |
|
Security Management |
Brawl |
Low |
Low |
Step 4: Risk Prioritization
Risks with high severity
of the consequences should be handled first.
Step 5: Formulate, prepare and implement strategies to manage risks.
Some common strategies used for risk management are:
*Risk Avoidance
Avoid those elements and activities which could carry a risk.*Risk Retention
Accept some or all the consequences associated with a particular risk.*Risk Transfer
Transfer the risk to a third party. For e.g. transferring the event security responsibility to a security agency.*Risk Reduction
Reduce the risk associated with a particular element or activity by developing an effective contingency action plan.
Step 6: Monitor the risks periodically
so that the strategies
used to manage the risks can be updated or reviewed.