Category Archives: Crisis meetings

Handling Crisis Situations for your Meetings

Extract . . .

A blizzard shuts down transportation routes across the nation, stranding attendees and exhibitors in distant cities as a convention is scheduled to begin.

A shuttle bus runs over and kills an attendee in front of a hotel.

A bomb threat empties a convention center in the midst of the busiest day of a major tradeshow.

These and other crises can wreak havoc on any type of meeting planned by an association or corporation. Even worse, meeting-related crises occur at a time when staff and volunteer leaders are already stretched to the limit with onsite responsibilities.

How does an organization respond?

“It’s a challenge,” says Al Rickard, CAE, president of Association Vision, a Washington, DC-area communications company. “Meeting crises call for a special type of crisis management and communication.”

Read more here:

http://www.conventionplanit.com/meeting-resources/attendance/handling-crisis-situations-for-your-meetings/

Five Quick Tips on How to Lead in a Crisis

Extract . . .

1. Answer the question. Be honest, be insightful, and don’t fudge around with talking points and rhetoric. Just answer. Truthfully, honestly, and to the best of your ability.

2. If you don’t know everything, find out. Get some advisors that you trust, and study with them. Don’t just walk around saying, “Well, I think this, but I’m not sure.” Find out and be sure.

3. Don’t use fancy words. Employees don’t care about corporate policy or return on investment. They want to know if they still have a job. They want to know if you think they’re doing a good job or not. They want to know if you care about your company, your employees, and the well-being of everyone who contributes to your business. Just say what you need to say.

Read more here:

http://www.accuconference.com/blog/Five-Quick-Tips-On-How-To-Lead-in-a-Crisis.aspx

The 11 Steps Of Crisis Communications By Jonathan Bernstein

Extract . . .

Crisis: An unstable or crucial time or state of affairs whose outcome will make a decisive difference for better or worse (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary). Every organization is vulnerable to crises. The days of playing ostrich are gone. You can play, but your stakeholders will not be understanding or forgiving because they’ve watched what happened.

Read more here:

http://www.conventionsouth.com/online_exclusives/crisis_management.htm

12 Tips for Contingency Planning

Extract . . .

Industry consultant, trainer and speaker Tyra W. Hilliard, an associate professor at the University of Alabama, teaches meetings contingency planning at industry events. Some preparedness measures she recommends include the following:

  1. Include crisis management as part of the organization’s strategic meetings management program.
  2. Form a crisis management external advisory committee, including people from outside the organization(e.g., meeting destination and facility representatives, attorney, insurance representative, law enforcement, etc.).
  3. Create a written crisis management plan for each meeting.

Read more here:

http://www.meetingsfocus.com/tabid/162/ArticleID/16175/Default.aspx#top

Does Your Association Meeting Have a Crisis and Contingency Plan? By DeDe Mulligan

Extract . . .

Sylvia Ratchford, Executive Director of the Hinman Dental Society was busily running their 20,000 person event in late March at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta when tornado sirens went off. In addition, on that same day, there was a consumer trade show and basketball tournament in the nearby Georgia Dome. “In all, there were probably about 50,000 people in the meetings corridor when the storm hit,” Ratchford said. “We had no warning whatsoever.”

Another crisis occurred last May when major flooding shut down the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center for several months. The staff with Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) was left without a meeting venue for 5,000 people just six weeks before their event. “I have been doing meeting planning for over 20 years and I never thought I would face this kind of challenge – moving a meeting in just 6 weeks,” said Angela Orlando, CMP, Director, Conferences and Travel.

Read more here:

http://blog.aveventsolutions.com/blog/news-and-tips/does-your-association-meeting-have-a-crisis-and-contingency-plan

Learn a Lesson from Japan: Does your Meeting have a Crisis Plan? by DeDe Mulligan

Extract . . .

Here are some tips and thoughts on crisis management that can help meeting and event planners, suppliers (such as your conference equipment rental company), and your many hundreds or thousands of attendees.

Read more here:

http://blog.aveventsolutions.com/blog/news-and-tips/lets-learn-our-lesson-from-japan-does-your-meeting-have-a-crisis-plan