Use Your Brain

Very few people get excited about a conversation over event risk management like the group of ladies I had the privilege of being on a recent podcast with.¹ As event planners, we have a moral, ethical, and legal responsibility to provide our attendees with a safe environment.² Without a risk management plan, when faced with a challenge that threatens the people, property, or event itself, the staff may not know the appropriate response. When left to troubleshoot on their own, people will react in an infinite number of ways; some helpful, some not.

As I was updating my risk management plan after our conversation, I realized that what I was really doing was documenting common sense. If people would just use their brains, stakeholders responsible to mitigate risks at an event would have so much less to worry about.

On the podcast with me was an amazing woman who holds a PhD in, and wrote a book on, event-specific risk management. At the very beginning of her book, the sentence that captured my heart was, “People are stupid.”³ Linda Robson, PhD, goes on to explain the rationale for her statement and its so true. An event provides an environment where people can suspend their reality for a moment, it creates space for people to intentionally interact with each other, and it’s unpredictable. People also come with unpredictability of their own and make questionable decisions. If you think about one major reason why we need risk management it’s because people don’t engage their brains.

For example, from a risk perspective, planning a corporate cocktail party at a venue with an outdoor patio on a mountainside is probably not the best idea. There will be people drinking alcohol and a potential for someone to walk or fall over the edge. Some people definitely don’t use their brains when imbibing and I have visions of women in their high heels, who want a better look at the view, stepping off the patio onto the grass and getting tripped up as their heels sink in. Talk about high risk!

I could wax on reviewing Linda’s book “The Robson Risk Management Model.”³ It was an eye-opener for me. She brought up areas of risk I had never thought of before. I’m not going to give it all away here, sorry. You can buy Linda’s book or send me and email and we can talk about it.

All this to say, as an event professional, make sure you have a procedure for creating an event risk management plan for your events. Train stakeholders on how to use it and show everyone where the printed copy is located when on-site at an event. Because, if you’ve worked with events long enough, you have interacted with someone who checked their brains with their coat.

Do you have a risk management plan? What risks do you evaluate? Share them here or shoot me an email, I’m curious to know how others plan.

Like this blog, share it on your social media and with someone who you know checked their brains at the door last time you went to a conference with them!

1. Joanne Dennison, CMP’s podcast “Sit in the Attendee’s Chair“
2 & 3. Robson, PhD, Dr. Linda M. , The Robson Risk Management Model, Boston, Robson Risk Management, 2009.