Event contingency plans to multiply in importance: Incentive Research Foundation

Recent events have demonstrated that no one is exempt from situations that cause disastrous event outcomes, be it the ill-fated Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, or the technical glitches of the inaugural Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago.

The Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) has released a white paper on Mitigating Risk in Modern Meetings and Incentives, an analysis of critical findings reported in the 2016 Event Disruption Study.

The white paper explores disruption mitigation strategies for meetings and incentives and provides insights on how partners prepare for and handle disruptions.

Meeting planners reported that disruptive incidents, happening with increasing frequency, include many weather-related phenomena, public enemies such as wars and terrorism, the business partner’s mistakes, and the client’s lack of cooperation.

Planners estimated that they now spend up to 25 percent of their time planning for potential disruptions, and nearly 40 percent of the planners expect that their time and effort to plan for disruptions will increase somewhat in the next two years.

“The 2016 Event Disruption Study demonstrates that disruptions are very real part of doing business in the meeting and incentives industry,” said Melissa Van Dyke, IRF President. “With the white paper, we’ve highlighted the research and actionable insights that meeting planners and their partners can use to plan for and respond to disruptions.”

The 2016 Event Disruption Study was completed in 2016 by University of South Carolina professors Dr. Haemoon Oh, Ph.D, and Dr. Miyoung Jeong, Ph.D. There were 18 interviews and 266 electronic responses. Event planners were surveyed on all events they had planned in 2015 and 2016.

Critical findings on risk mitigation measures discussed in Mitigating Risk in Modern Meetings and Incentives focus on effective planning, lessons learnt during disruptions and the importance of vendor trust and cooperation. Insights addressed in the white paper include:

• Over 90 percent of planners said their companies require contingency plans – with 54 percent requiring them for all events and 37 percent for some of their events.
• Planners’ confidence level about planning for disruptions is 79 percent.
• Almost half the planners (49 percent) have switched at least one business partner due to the partner’s poor handling of disruptions.
• Nearly 70 percent of planning companies provide guidelines or assistance for planning for disruptions.
• The internet is the most frequently used resource for when planning for disruptions.
• Nearly half (49 percent) of planning companies or planners actively communicate to their attendees about potential disruption situations and the suggested course of action.
• The destination has been changed at least once by 68 percent of planners because of perceived risks or disruptions.
• Roughly 70 percent of planners required waivers for either both the attendee and guest together (34 percent) or the attendee and guest separate (34 percent).
• When a disruption occurred, 57 percent of planners either agreed or strongly agreed with the partner’s readiness or capacity to handle disruptions.
• Planners listed strong relationships and cooperation with vendor partners as the most needed resource for disruption planning.
• When evaluating what built trust within the vendor partner relationship, a vendor partner’s cooperative behaviour had the strongest impact (64 percent).

Click here to get the full report on  Mitigating Risk in Modern Meetings and Incentives.

Click here to read the 2016 Event Disruption Study.

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