Safety and insurance, paramount to event successes
As corporations and event planners get ready for post COVID recovery, it remains unclear what future MICE events will look like. In our “back to the future” serie, we look at the future trying to remember from our past and while the new normal may be much different after COVID, it is also certains that what used to be the most important components of successful events in the past will remain to some extent. Safety and insurance, will remain paramount to event successes
What are the top factors driving site-selection decisions ? Why safety is key!
Designing and planning your next incentive is not an easy task. There are many parameters to take into account, many boxes to check while there are many people to please.
Among the chief factors to consider while selecting the right site and program for an incentive, the topmost preoccupations are, not surprisingly, infrastructure and overall safety. Infrastructure means quality hotels, good coordination, using safe and well maintained transportation systems, excellent restaurants. Yet as important as the quality of hotels or activities, without due diligence about safety and risk assessment, all efforts may come to nul in the end. Truly, Safety and insurance, paramount to event successes.
Safety and insurance, paramount to event successes
As the Society of Incentive Travel Excellence SITE is committed to providing the highest standards and market information regarding MICE events. Together with their partners and Oxford Economics they provide a more objective way to look at the business in the form of the Incentive Travel Industry Index (ITII) (https://www.siteglobal.com/siteindex), which provides key insights about the incentive travel business. Together with quality infrastructure, overall participant safety is the No1 aspect to consider when planning for your next meeting or incentive
Focus on safety includes a number of parameters many of whom appear to be common sense but are all too often treated too lightly and without the required due diligence. Among the top safety parameters No1 is having an emergency-preparedness plan, which in some case is described as the combination of a Risk-assessment system plus a system for the management of safety. In Singapore this is called RAMS,
Another sought after safety feature is having mobile event app to communicate risk-management issues, not forgetting social media policy and particularly for European countries the RGDP procedures ensuring respect of data privacy .
Besides, organisers will expect a thorough list of compliance requirements, as well as extra physical security when needed.
In addition, organisers may need to be ready with extra IT security, vendor security audits and extra medical personnel.
Business not at the expenses of safety
While Incentive or sophisticated business meeting programs have proven an effective way to bring benefits to companies, it will never be done at the expense of safety. Following COVID 19 pandemic, the hybrid nature of such events is not to be questioned anymore. Hence to the physical safety and wellness of participants adds up their virtual, web safety and privacy rights.
Besides business benefits such as increased sales and/or profits for the company, well planned meetings and incentives are also enablers for improved engagement by employees or channel partners, increased individual productivity and better relationship-building between employees and management. Yet this can only be true with the proper security measure in place.
In 2019, SITE together with Oxford Economics, a leader in global forecasting and quantitative analysis, with the world’s only fully integrated economic model and 250 full-time economists, queried 2,600 incentive travel professionals from 100 countries. Below is the list of key security measures to be implemented in the 2020’s
- Emergency-preparedness plan 66%
- Mobile event app to communicate risk-management issues 61%
- Social media policy 53%
- Compliance requirements 51%
- Extra physical security 47%
- Extra IT security 44%
- Vendor security audits 39%
- Extra medical personnel 34%
