Managing your event risk before you risk your event - Part 1

Risk management is an important and integral part of the overall management of any event. The safety of participants, spectators and all those involved in organising and running the event should be paramount to the organisation of the event.

Over the next few weeks, we will be discussing the concepts of risk management and look forward to your comments and queries.

Introducing risk management

Risk management must always be considered before the selection of suppliers, staff and communication, as the risk profile will dictate these choices. Therefore, risk management results differ for each event.

Any company that thinks risk management is not important to events simply needs to recall some of the less than successful events in the past like the National Woman’s Day disaster or the Zoo Lake drowning. In each of these events, the event manager or the subcontractors hired by the event manager could have been held criminally and civilly liable for the results of the disaster that occurred.

You need to develop a risk management plan for your specific event, as one risk management plan does not fit all sizes. However all risk management plans have seven specific stages that may be more or less complex depending on the event:

1.            Establish context of event

2.            Identify risks and risk owners

3.            Analyse risks in respect of likelihood and consequence

4.            Evaluate options and treatment to reduce or remove high risks

5.            Implement and communicate risk management plan to stakeholders

6.            Monitor risk management process

7.            Evaluate success or failure

This forms the basis of the risk management manual, a living document that must be referred to throughout the event process. However, once you have done the first Risk Management plan, the next one becomes easier as the process becomes more understandable.

Next week – establishing context