Having an exit strategy in advance is always crucial, no matter the event. Photo courtesy of Shannon Jones

Crisis management is probably the hardest challenge of event marketing. It’s hard work. It’s time consuming. It adds an extra touch of difficulty to event planning. And yet, you need to know how to prepare a strategic plan for your events because at some point, you’ll face an unexpected crisis at your event. Maybe a hurricane will suddenly turn in a direction not forecast by weather experts — right toward you and your attendees. Civil unrest might erupt. Food poisoning could hit multiple attendees or airlines could go on strike. Or a million other things could happen.

How that ultimately impacts your meeting depends on your crisis management plan, your communication strategy and how well prepared you and your team are.

Shannon Jones, CMP, senior meetings and events manager with Destination South Meetings + Events, said a clear chain of command is critical — who is immediately called in the event of a problem, who’s in charge, who calls whom. That includes who on the planning team, within the organization and at the hotel, convention center or other venue.

“If there’s a medical emergency, for example, the person who witnesses it would call 911, but then they’d also immediately call the identified person in the organization and/or the lead planner onsite. One of those people might have the job of calling the president or CEO of the organization,” said Jones.

In addition to identifying who should be called and in what order, Jones said it’s important to identify the person who would speak to the media in the event it’s an incident or issue in which the media might be interested — a fire in the building, a sexual harassment incident or a death, for example. If a company is large and a well-known name or brand, the media might want an official comment.

An exit strategy should be identified ahead of time. Where are the exits? Where should attendees be moved in the event the venue isn’t safe and what route should they take?  “Typically, the planning team would work with the venue ahead of time on that,” Jones said. “In many cases, the venue will have a detailed exit plan for its particular layout and would share that with the planning team in advance.”

There’s no single way to do things. “Every venue is different and vendor partners may have their own plans as to the chain of command and protocols,” Jones said. “In some cases, you might call the venue’s security personnel and in others you might be directed to call someone at the venue who will then contact security.”

Even something as familiar as calling 911 may not be the protocol in certain places. “Gaylord comes to mind,” Jones continued. “At Gaylord Opryland you don’t call 911. That resort is a huge property and if you don’t know it inside out you wouldn’t be able to direct first responders to where you and/or the emergency are. The property has a well-written plan on what to do to report an incident. It covers evacuation processes and the normal stuff in case of fire, etc. The protocol is to call the identified person within the resort first and that person calls and directs responders if necessary.”

Smaller venues may not have a plan, Jones noted. “That’s when you partner with staff and come up with a plan together, well ahead of time. When there’s no plan, people might do things differently and that can not only cause confusion in an emergency, and it can make things worse.”

Jones and her team always have a lead planner and an assistant planner onsite. “The lead planner should always be notified but isn’t necessarily the decisionmaker. If someone other than the lead planner is the decisionmaker, that person should be identified ahead of time.”

Jones emphasized the importance of involving your partners in your crisis management plan. If that hasn’t happened prior, those conversations should take place during the precon. She advised inviting at least one member of the venue’s security team to the precon.

“They need to know what’s going to happen and what to look out for so they can act if necessary. For example, is there going to be an open bar? Is your group primarily women? Are guests going to be using stairways? The more you share about the specifics of your group the better prepared everyone can be,” she said.

That goes not just for big things but small things, too. “Something as seemingly insignificant as the west elevator not working or lights out in the stairwell can become a significant problem if not taken care of quickly,” Jones said. “That’s where the chain of command comes in; you need to know who to contact immediately to mitigate problems like these before they become emergencies. The same goes for incidents that involve some kind of disciplinary response; that response should be decided ahead of time so everyone is on the same page.”

There are a variety of ways to communicate with attendees. “You can include pertinent information in your Know Before You Go communication and provide a link to PDFs or web pages devoted to crisis information. Whatever your mass communications tools are, you should know when and how to use them,” Jones said. “This is where your event app comes in. You can do push notifications and text notifications. You can also provide some info in your housekeeping notes.”

The more transparent your plan is, she added, “the more it’s a partnership, the better it is for everyone.”

Angela Baer, CMP, CMM, corporate event coordinator at Caterpillar Inc., also emphasizes how communication is the primary consideration in a crisis management plan.

“We cannot anticipate all the things that could happen at any given time or location so it’s important to have someone to answer questions, gather information and act on any issues appropriately,” said Baer. “Usually that person is me, so I like to be sure I have all my ducks in a row regarding things like emergency evacuations, take covers, etc.  But it’s also about knowing your location and attendees.”

Do they typically go off property?  If so, are there locations she can direct them to or steer them away from? Are there any large celebrations or demonstrations going on? These could impede attendees accessing the venue depending on the day and time.

“I just had an event in Arlington, Texas, and thank God the Rangers won when they did. Their parade on any other day would have seriously impeded my event. I’ve never watched a World Series game so closely!”

Experts often say that crisis leaders must respond, not react. Baer agreed. “Attendees will be looking to you (or your dedicated person) for answers, so leaders have to remain cool, calm and collected. It’s ok to not know what to do, but it’s important to stay calm and figure out a solution to whatever is happening.”

She said venues often provide “shockingly little” in terms of safety and security information, so she has a checklist she sends to venues. Any item they do not have or provide, she tries to arrange an alternative. For instance, if a venue doesn’t have onsite medical staff, she determines if she needs to hire them to be onsite or if having a plan to access the nearest prompt care or hospital is sufficient. Either way, she has phone numbers and other information to access if needed.

In terms of communicating with attendees, Baer, like others, said the app is a good tool. “We offer the option of an app that can include crisis information. If attendees choose not to use an app, we communicate this information (several times) prior to the event in email communications and we always have it available at the event for anyone who requests it,” said Baer.

That said, an app isn’t infallible. “I’ve learned over the years that people do not read, so you can give information to them tied in a bow, but they won’t see it until they need it and they’ll call you anyway,” Baer said. “Do not rely entirely on an app or any other communication, always be ready yourself with safety and security info.”

When a meeting is set in an international destination, that can add to the complexity of preparedness. Baer had events in four countries this year, and like she said, there are other things to consider when working internationally.

“For example, depending on the area, we put additional safety precautions in place in regard to things like transportation. We arrange airport transportation to and from our venue in some locations. We’ll have events in all-inclusive resorts in some countries, as they tend to be safer. Communicating with the venue personnel or people in a region is crucial to understanding the location and what precautions to take.”

The fact is, Baer said, “Stuff is going to happen. It’s how you manage it that will be remembered.”

Tyra Warner, associate professor and chair, Department of Hospitality, Tourism, & Culinary Arts at College of Coastal Georgia, pointed out that a good crisis management plan is enterprise wide. That is, it doesn’t just address meetings but the whole company or organization. If a true crisis occurs and affects the meeting, the whole organization will be scrutinized.

A crisis management plan should include a listing of who’s on the crisis management team.  “This is ideally a cross-functional team with representatives from different parts of the organization,” Warner said. A team could consist of a crisis team leader, site managers at specific facilities, communications folks and specialists. For example, if a crisis occurs, planners may want to have lawyers, insurance agents and possibly accountants on standby to answer questions and provide directions on how to proceed.

Warner said the first steps in creating a crisis plan should be a risk assessment and analysis. “It should contain a list of those potential crises, disasters and emergencies that are most likely to occur or that will have the biggest impact if they do occur. Then emergency response plans need to be created for those occurrences. Many will overlap because, for example, you may have several potential crises for which the appropriate response is to evacuate the facility or, conversely, to shelter in place.”

Like others, she said communication is critical. “Communication will vary depending on whether there’s a known threat. Assuming there’s no known threat, it’s still wise to include emergency information in the ‘Know Before You Go’ information sent to conference participants. This would include information they should know when onsite (where they can get first aid, emergency care, what number to dial in an emergency, etc.) as well as the information they should leave with friends or family back home who will be called if an emergency involving the attendee occurs.”

Although we often give little thought to the emergency contact requested on registration forms, it’s an important role. Friends and family need to know the hotel, address and phone number where the attendee is staying. They also need the number for the event organizer in case they think something is wrong, for example if the attendee doesn’t answer repeated phone calls and a wellness check seems necessary. Friends and family should also be able to quickly answer health and medication questions if called.

Warner said communicating with the venue is largely about coordinating plans. “The venue likely has its own emergency response plan, and the group doesn’t want to be working at cross purpose. The two need to coordinate. Venues need to be informed of known threats. The event organizer needs to ask questions about alarms — can they be heard in meeting rooms and guest rooms — and the location of evacuation points. The organizer needs to ask questions about procedures, too. For example, should attendees stay in place when an alarm is heard and wait for an announcement to say whether to shelter in place or evacuate? Destinations may need to be informed if there’s a known threat that may draw public scrutiny or the news, such as if there’s picketing.”

Leadership needs to be aware of any known threats, however small or unlikely. “This includes any known disgruntled former employees or domestic issues of attendees or employees that could escalate,” Warner said. “Leadership should be briefed on the emergency response plans as they’ll likely be part of the crisis response team. A crisis website and voicemail can be 90% created ahead of time, ready for a ‘fill in the blanks’ for the specific crisis. This will help speed the response if something does happen.”

Warner agrees that responding, not reacting, is imperative. “If an organization has taken the time to prepare, to do a risk assessment and analysis, to go through the crisis planning phase, they have the knowledge to respond.  If they say, “We’ll figure it out if it happens,” they can do nothing but react. Careful thought must go into each step of dealing with a crisis as a wrong step can have lasting ill effects. It’s important that leaders are responding in a prepared, educated manner and not just reacting to the next thing that hits them.”

The more we normalize crisis preparedness, Warner concluded, “the less uncomfortable our attendees will feel about it.  Start every session with an announcement of where the emergency exits are. Put colorful strips of paper with emergency information in the middle of tables. When attendees lose focus during the meeting (as they do), they’ll pick them up and read them.  Emergencies can happen anywhere, to anyone. We must be prepared.” C&IT