Shannon Copeland is an Industry Manager and Meteorologist for StormGeo and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s School of Meteorology. While completing her degree, she supported numerous research initiatives focused on severe weather, emergency management, disaster preparedness and recovery. She supports StormGeo’s outreach strategy and aids in identifying weather-related risks to businesses and their employees in the hospitality, banking and finance, property management, construction and auto manufacturing industries.

The seamless coordination of countless logistics required to produce a productive and enjoyable meeting or event is a Herculean task. Add on the threat of a severe weather situation, and your stress level will multiply.

In today’s world, you cannot overlook the possibility of Mother Nature becoming an unwanted and unexpected attendee at your meeting or event. Changing weather patterns require meeting planners to become more proactive about planning for severe weather or be faced with costly consequences.

Realizing the potential for a hurricane or another weather disaster while planning your meeting or event will help keep your attendees safe while reducing the risk of significant financial losses. If you have yet to build weather-related contingencies into your event planning protocol or need a refresher on how to do so, below are five steps you can immediately start implementing before the next major event blows through.

#1 Always Have a Backup Plan

As a meeting planner, you know that not having a Plan B, C, or Z, means you are doomed. Of course, this goes for your keynote speakers, caterers, audiovisual support, and the weather, too.

Here is a list of questions you may want to ask yourself and your team before planning your next event:

• Do you have another nearby venue where you could host the event?
• Should you arrange transportation for attendees to get to another venue, or would you cancel it altogether?
• Can your venue provide generator power should severe weather impact your electricity supply?
• Who are your vendors? Would they be self-sufficient in preparing for a weather event, or would they need emergency guidance? (You may want to consider asking this during your vetting process.)
• Does the venue have specific protocols that event planners have to follow? How do these impact your plan for severe weather response?

While your central location should be your primary concern, hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and other social settings should also be considered. These sites may be spread across a city or metro area and could impact the comings and goings of your attendees. In addition, forming solid relationships with your venue hosts and maintaining good communication with them will benefit you if an emergency arises and you need to make changes on short notice.

#2 Know Your Location

While you think you may know what types of weather to expect when you are in certain parts of the country, the truth is you cannot be too sure. With a changing climate, businesses can no longer dismiss the likelihood of unfamiliar weather patterns, such as hurricanes and torrential flooding happening earlier and earlier each season. As meeting and event planners responsible for the safety of sometimes thousands of people, we cannot take anything for granted.

Knowing what to expect in the specific location and the estimated date of your event is critical to building contingency plans around severe weather. Obtaining a long-range weather forecast from a reliable source will help you achieve this. Accurate information will impact the success of your planning, so it’s wise to seek advice from weather intelligence services that can provide a forecast tailored to the needs of your particular event.

#3 Pre-empt Travel Issues

Monitoring where keynote speakers and other event VIPs are traveling from will help you prepare if they are not able to make it due to the weather.

While the severe weather event may not impact the main conference or convention site, it may affect your speakers and their travel plans. Make sure you have a backup plan if a critical event program member suddenly becomes unavailable. Should you remove the event from the agenda? Can you arrange for that person to join remotely, and would they be able to? Should you reshuffle the schedule, or do you have a backup speaker you can call on?

Having contingency plans is crucial, but being able to implement them swiftly could save your program and overall attendee satisfaction. Access to accurate weather intelligence in advance of your event and even before your speakers may give you the time to activate your plan B seamlessly.

#4 Designate roles and responsibilities

Before an emergency, whether a storm or otherwise, you should elect critical people authorized to make decisions. Unfortunately, you won’t necessarily have the luxury of time to track down a manager or other authoritative figure, so make sure efficient communication can be maintained.

Also, have your law enforcement, security, medical staff, and public relations team ready, and ensure they know their roles and responsibilities. Finally, create a system so that critical information cascades across all parties who may interact with your meeting attendees.

#5 Communicate (and overcommunicate) with attendees

Start communicating with guests, speakers and vendors before the event and maintain communication during your event. Providing a weather forecast, contingency plans and any other helpful resources will help guests and speakers plan for the unexpected. In addition, utilize a mobile event app with a mass messaging feature to inform attendees, vendors and staff of severe weather alerts.

Should the weather change unexpectedly, you can make announcements before the speaker session when attendance is usually at its highest. It’s important to also communicate with attendees remotely. Make sure you have each person’s mobile number on file to reach all registered attendees, staff and speakers.

As the adage goes, knowledge is power. If you know what to expect, you can prepare for any foreseeable weather disruption to your event. In addition, access to information in advance can help you set up and exercise your contingency plans as needed.

Following these can help set you on a path of preparation that could save your event when you find yourself in any unexpected circumstances.  | AC&F |