Event Sector

Common Causes of Event Cancellations and Insurance Implications
Common Causes of Event Cancellations and Insurance Implications 1000 667 James Hallam

A thorough risk assessment and good contingency planning can help you keep your event on track in the face of many unexpected developments. Yet in a worst case scenario, you may have no choice but cancel your event. This is why it is vital to get comprehensive event cancellation insurance as part of your specialist event insurance policy.

In this post we will outline some common causes of event cancellations, along with the sort of contingency planning that could help you avoid an outright cancellation.

Preparing For Cancellations and Why Insurance Is Essential

It is important to plan the steps you will take should you need to cancel your event, for whatever reason.

You will need a means of:

  • Notifying all delegates, along with the venue staff and your guests, that the event is not taking place.
  • Investing in additional paid advertising, so as to ensure that your message is seen by as many people as possible.
  • Refund some or all of the fees from attendees and sponsors.
  • Reimburse certain travel or accommodation expenses for speakers.

Dedicated event cancellation insurance can cover you for all of these expenses, fee refunds and more. This is why it is essential to take out your insurance as early in your planning as possible.

Common Causes of Event Cancellations

Bad Weather

Many events are cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. High winds and heavy rains can cause real risks for outdoor and indoor events. Snow can seriously disrupt travel, and flooding can jeopardise even a sheltered indoor event.

You might plan for bad weather through having an alternative venue in mind to which you can relocate if necessary.

Yet bad weather is just one aspect of event planning that is genuinely beyond your control. This is why it is crucial to get the cover you need for unexpected ”events” that may coincide with the event you are running.

Non-Attendance and Cancellations

If one of your speakers pulls out, you may not have to cancel your event outright, but you may have to deal with a number of refund requests. However, if a keynote speaker pulls out, or if multiple speakers cancel at once, and if you cannot find replacements then you may have no choice but to cancel or reduce the content delivered.

You can plan for this scenario through developing a list of alternative speakers you might reach out to if you need to fill a slot at short notice. You can also manage your delegates’ expectations with a disclaimer that your event’s programme is “liable to change”.

Yet if refunds or cancellations cannot be avoided, once again event cancellation insurance can cover you for any costs you may need to meet.

Venue Cancellations and Safety Issues

Your chosen venue may suddenly cancel your event, perhaps as a result of safety issues, of structural damages, or due to a scheduling conflict.

If you are not able to find an alternative venue in time, you will have to either reschedule your event or cancel it. Your event cancellation insurance can help mitigate the losses you may incur as a result of unexpected venue-related issues.

Other Unexpected Events

A range of additional unexpected events may compromise your event, which may make you consider cancelling:

  • Road closures
  • Building work
  • Industrial action
  • Terrorism
  • Riots and public disorder

Such events are out of your hands, which can make risk assessments and contingency planning difficult. Event insurance can give you peace of mind that you will be covered for insured losses that will arise from such situations. Yet to avoid any unpleasant surprises, check your policy wording in advance to ensure that there are no exceptions to your cover that are of concern.

Get Specialist Event Insurance From James Hallam

As we have seen, there are many situations that may force you to cancel your event, some of which are beyond your control. This is why dedicated event cancellation insurance is vital.

James Hallam is an independent Lloyd’s broker with access to a hand-picked selection of A-rated insurance providers. We can help you get the comprehensive event cancellation cover you need, to ensure you are fully covered for all contingencies with no risky gaps in your cover.

Get in touch for a free quote today.

Location Risk Analysis & Assessment for International Events
Location Risk Analysis & Assessment for International Events 1000 667 James Hallam

Organising an international event can expose you to a number of risks beyond those that you would ordinarily face when putting on an event in your home country. And if something goes wrong, the potential financial and reputational damages could be much more severe.

Just as you would when organising an event in your home country, you should take the time to analyse and assess every risk you could face when running your event, including fires, onsite injuries, and cybercrime. This will help you form a plan for managing and mitigating these risks.

Beyond these standard risks, in this post we will share some location risk analysis and assessment tips for international events.

Analysing Location Specific Risks For International Events

As early in the planning process as possible, use your PCO or DMC, if you have one, or the host city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), if there is one. They may be best placed to advise you on location specific risks for your event, as well as any necessary licenses you may need to acquire, or regulations you may need to follow.

Location specific risks may include:

  • criminal activity
  • potential for civil, political, or industrial unrest
  • risks associated with the use of public transportation in your host city

You could also contact the venue directly, along with any local hosts or organising committees you may be liaising with.

You could also consult the government website for the latest foreign travel advice.

Risk Assessment and Risk Management Tasks for International Events

Advise Your Delegates of Precautions

If delegates will be travelling from multiple countries to attend the international event, then you should advise them of any special precautions they should take when travelling to and attending your event.

This can include some travel advice, but you should also signpost them to official channels so they can get the most up-to-date information. You could also provide a directory of useful contacts they may need in the host country, such as the emergency services.

Plan For Emergencies

Some risks may be beyond your control. For example, an ash cloud could cause severe delays to global flights, which could seriously compromise your event. Earthquakes, civil unrest, and other sudden disasters could force you to significantly delay your event, or even cancel it outright, at short notice.

You should plan for such emergency situations accordingly. You will need fast and reliable means of communication with all event and venue staff. The communication strategy should account for time differences and language barriers.

You will also need a means of disseminating information to your delegates as quickly as possible. Emails can get overlooked, or lost in spam folders, so it is important to use all possible communication channels. For example, you might consider setting up a dedicated app for your event, which could allow you to send updates instantly to all attendees should you need to notify them of emergencies or local transportation difficulties.

Get Insurance Cover As Early As Possible

Planning any event is a complicated process. Planning an international event can be particularly problematic, as you may be exposed to the sort of risks that are completely beyond your control.

This is why it is important to get comprehensive events insurance as early in the planning process as possible. This can cover you for any issues you may encounter when planning the event, such as venue changes and issues with speakers or transportation. It can also cover you if you need to cancel your event outright at short notice.

James Hallam is an independent Lloyd’s broker with a dedicated team of experienced insurance professionals who specialise in getting you the cover you need at a competitive price.

Our dedicated event insurance services can include cover for the specific risks you may face when organising and running international events.

Learn more about our specialist insurance services for the event sector.

 

 

Event Sustainability: Essentials for Sustainable Event Planning
Event Sustainability: Essentials for Sustainable Event Planning 500 264 James Hallam

This post is an essential introduction to sustainable event planning. We will outline some principles and practices you can adopt to help make your events more sustainable without compromising on quality.

Setting Sustainability Goals for Events

What exactly do you wish to achieve in terms of event sustainability? Set some clear goals and you can track your progress while assessing what works, and what might need rethinking.

Possible goals to track could include:

  • Lower carbon emissions.
  • Carbon offsetting projects – such as planting more trees.
  • Reduced waste to landfill.
  • Reduced energy use.

To set your sustainability goals, you will first have to establish some benchmark figures. For example, what is your business’s current carbon footprint? How much energy do your current events use, and how much waste do you currently produce?

How to Find Sustainable Event Venues

Aim to establish partnerships that take sustainability as seriously as you do. Here are some things to look out for:

  • Energy – A sustainable venue might generate its own energy using solar panels or turbines, or it might use biofuel to reduce emissions from temporary generators.
  • Waste – A sustainable venue will commit to sending zero waste to landfill. It may even have found a way to recycle its waste so that its used to generate energy.
  • Food Miles – A sustainable venue will aim to reduce its food miles through working exclusively with local producers.

For an example of a venue that prioritises sustainability, take a look at Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre’s sustainability page.

Planning and Incentivising Greener Transport for Delegates

Another important thing to consider when choosing venues – will it be possible for the majority of delegates to reach the venue using public transport links?

There are many extra things you can do to make things as easy as possible for your delegates. If there are no nearby train stations, bus stops, or tram stops, for instance, you could organise green shuttle buses to ferry delegates from the nearest transport hub.

You could also run initiatives to encourage as many delegates as possible to choose greener transport options. For example, you could offer vouchers for free food or drinks for any delegate that arrived via public transport.

Supplier Sustainability Audit – Gifts, Catering, and More

Audit your event planning operations to identify any potential areas of waste, along with any areas where you might make improvements.

Earlier we mentioned the importance of sustainability in catering. Regardless of whether your business is handling this, or the venue, you should look to prioritise seasonal ingredients, low food miles, and zero waste to landfill.

Also think about the gifts and marketing materials you might supply. Aim to reduce packaging, and to prioritise authenticity and personalisation over sheer quantity. Here is a useful introduction to how you can apply sustainability principles to your gifting and marketing strategy.

Finally, think about the extra materials you provide as part of your events, from flipcharts to notepads to technology. As well as focusing on sustainability in procurement (such as through choosing recycled or low-carbon alternatives), also think about waste management. How can you encourage delegates to responsibly dispose of any wastepaper they produce at the event, for instance?

At James Hallam, We Are Committed to ESG

As part of your commitment to event sustainability, you should ensure that every organisation you work with shares your goals.

We have already mentioned the importance of choosing sustainable venues and suppliers. But what about your professional partners?

Choose James Hallam as your event sector insurance partners, and you can rest assured that your dedicated insurance brokers will be just as committed to sustainability as they are to getting you the specialist cover you need.

Learn more about our ESG commitment here.

What Insurance Do You Need For a Conference?
What Insurance Do You Need For a Conference? 500 259 James Hallam

If your business regularly hosts conferences, or if you are planning your very first conference, then you are likely wondering about the insurance requirements. What cover do you need to ensure that you will be insured for every eventuality?

Whether you are planning a single-day event, or a conference that lasts a number of days, in this post we will discuss the different types of insurance cover you may need for your conference.

Do You Need Insurance For a Conference?

First, contact the conference venue to see what sort of cover they require you to have as part of their booking conditions. Usually they will only be interested in whether you have liability insurance, but they may have a minimum level of cover that they require you to hold

Your existing business insurance may provide some cover for the conference. For example, your employer’s liability insurance may cover your own staff for anything that might go wrong while they are working at the conference.

However, you must not assume that the venue’s insurance, along with your own insurance, will give you all the cover you need. To ensure you are fully covered for anything that might go wrong, it is a good idea to take out some specialist conference insurance for your event.

Conference Cancellation Insurance

If you need to cancel your conference, for any reason, then the money expended to that point in securing the venue and other components could be lost. In addition, your speakers may request that you refund any travel and accommodation expenses. You may also be commercially obliged to refund attendees payments for attending.   This could leave you seriously out of pocket. But cancellation insurance can cover such costs, along with certain other expenses that may arise as a result of a cancellation.

Cancellation insurance can include cover for:

  • Full cancellations, along with significant alterations to the original conference plan, such as curtailment, alternative speakers, and moving the conference to a different time or venue.
  • Non-appearance, should key speakers or guests not show up, or cancel at short notice.
  • Disruptions as a result of terrorism, bomb threats, strikes, protests, or adverse weather.
  • National mourning, should you need to cancel your conference as a result of a death.

Property Insurance

The venue’s insurance should cover any equipment they provide, such as sound systems, tables, and chairs. But you may need to take out dedicated property insurance for any additional equipment you bring to the venue, whether you own it or hire it specifically for the conference.

This can also cover any loss or damage to your property while it is in transit to and from the conference venue. Plus, if you hire equipment for the conference, and this equipment is lost, destroyed, or damaged, your property insurance can cover any ongoing hire charges, along with necessary repairs or replacements. Always check your contract for equipment hire to establish whether you are required to insure it.

Public and Event Liability Insurance

Public liability insurance, or event liability insurance, will cover you for claims made by attendees, venue owners, and other third parties for any personal injuries or loss or damage to belongings and property.

The venue will have their own public liability insurance, but this will cover them for their own negligent acts, you will need your own policy to cover your liability should an accident be down to you. It is normally a condition of booking the venue to that you have this type of insurance. Once again, you may need dedicated public liability insurance for your conference if your annual public liability insurance has not been extended to cover your events.

How Much Conference Insurance Do I Need?

The amount of conference insurance you get, and the amount you pay for your cover, will depend on a number of factors. This includes the size of the event budget, the event’s duration, the number of attendees, the number of staff onsite, and any special arrangements for guests or speakers.

James Hallam is an independent Lloyd’s broker with access to a hand-picked selection of A-rated insurance providers. We can help you get all the cover you need for your conference, including specialist insurance for your staff, your attendees, and your property.

Get in touch for a free quote today.

Cyber & Data Risks Insurance
Cyber & Data Risks Insurance 1920 1280 James Hallam

Each year when completing a review of their insurances, most businesses will look at uninsured exposures with their insurance broker. Most of these can be reasonably ignored following simple cost-benefit analysis, but cyber is more difficult in that the associated risks and their potential cost to a business are still developing. It is anticipated though that the frequency and severity of such incidents will continue to rise, mirroring the experience of North America where cyber risks are given a higher regulatory and boardroom prominence. In the US it is now estimated that over 75% of corporate businesses purchase cyber insurance.

  • Different businesses will be exposed to cyber risk in different ways; some are reliant on their website to drive turnover, some rely on a hosted accounting or billing system to operate whilst others hold sensitive client data or intellectually valuable data on their systems. There are a multitude of scenarios that leave a business exposed to internal and external electronic threat. The failure of an IT network could be debilitating and a good first step is to identify and take steps to mitigate external and internal IT risks. These include:
    data theft or data loss
  • hijacks where hackers gain control of a system and demand a ransom to restore service
  • bot scams where viruses are used to take over large numbers of computers
  • basic human error (internally generated risks should not be overlooked and continue to be the most common proximate cause to a cyber loss)

Notification costs following the loss of third party data is now a major concern for EU business following GDPR. Safekeeping of data is the responsibility of the customer facing entity, notwithstanding that a third party processing company may have been the party that lost the data and/or contractual terms making a third party responsible for notification. This means if you are hacked and lose your customer data (names, addresses, credit card numbers etc.) you will need to report the loss to the data commissioner, possibly pay PCI fines, pay the cost of notifying your customers that they are at risk, pay for advice to manage their risks and pay PR costs to manage the potential damage to your brand and reputation. All of these risks can be insured and cyber insurance will additionally cover fines and penalties associated with regulatory investigations due to a privacy event.
The other major threat to a business may be the loss of a website and a resultant loss of revenue. Again, this can be insured.

  • The cyber insurance market has been developing at a rapid pace over the past five years as experience has been gained by insurers. Areas of cyber-risk that can now be insured include:
    replacing, restoring or recreating data that has been corrupted or destroyed by network failure or first/third party intervention
  • loss of data and notification management costs
  • criminal threat or extortion to release sensitive information or bring down a network unless demands are met
  • loss of income and extra expenses resulting from when a network is interrupted by attack. Covers criminal hackers, malicious insiders and denial of service (DOS) attacks, (including extortion monies)
  • payment fraud (deception of the insured’s customers into transferring over funds)
  • public relations expenses and crisis management
  • disaster recovery activation costs
  • fines and penalties where insurable by law
  • use of leased / rented external equipment
  • use of third party services
  • additional staff expenditure and overtime payments
  • terrorism risk, including ideological risk (LulzSec, Anonymous etc)

James Hallam Insurance Brokers have been placing cyber risk in the London market for over fifteen years. We source cover to insure against all of the above threats and, in addition, we can protect against risks that the majority of cyber insurers omit. For example, our favoured market will also provide:

  • the provision of first party cover on an “each and every claim” basis, ensuring that policyholders aren’t restricted by a policy aggregate and that the full benefits of cover are available each time a crisis strikes, even if they experience multiple cyber incidents in the same policy period
  • full retroactive cover as standard, meaning that policyholders are covered for breaches they discover during the policy period, even if it first occurred long before. Symantec has reported that the average time to discover a breach is 205 days, making this a particularly important feature
  • an extensive in-house incident response capability to ensure that cyber incidents are dealt with quickly and efficiently in real time. Initial response services are offered with no deductible payable by the insured
  • broader cover for senior executive officers who are regularly targeted in cyber attacks, covering theft of personal funds of individuals as well as those of the company
  • if a suit is brought against directors and officers following a cyber attack, the policy provides affirmative cover in the event that their management liability policy doesn’t respond
  • incident response costs are provided in addition to the policy limit
  • no excess is applied to the initial reporting and investigation costs
  • full systems failure is covered, including resultant business interruption
  • full Supply Chain is covered, including Technology suppliers (and non-Technology suppliers if named)
  • Cryptojacking and Botnetting are included under the definition of Cyber Crime
  • Additional Extra Expense coverage is included for costs above the normal operating expenses of a business
  • Hardware Replacement coverage is included for computer hardware or tangible equipment damaged as a result of a cyber event

Some points to consider when discussing Cyber Risk with your clients

Dealing with a ransomware incident is rarely a simple matter of the ransom payment being made and the business in question automatically regaining access to their systems and data. Even after a ransom payment has been made, and assuming the system can be successfully decrypted, the ransomware can have the unintended side effect of severely impairing the functionality of one or more of a business’s vital systems.

The use of legacy systems can significantly increase the risk of a cyber loss. Generally speaking, legacy systems are not only far more vulnerable to attack, they are also much more susceptible to dysfunction following a cyber attack.

The importance of having data re-creation cover is becoming increasingly apparent. Many cyber policies only provide cover for the cost to recover or restore data from back-ups, but not the costs to re-create or re-enter lost data from scratch. The bulk of the costs to a claim can come from the labour costs associated with manually re-entering data, and brokers should be sure to check that their clients have this important cover in place.

Almost all modern businesses have some form of cyber exposure. Even if a policyholder does not solely rely on their computer systems to carry out work, they will still have an office function that playing a key role in the running of the business. When the computer systems in an office are affected by a cyber event it will almost certainly have a negative impact on the overall business operation and having a cyber insurance policy in place will provide a valuable safety net for the company.

James Hallam can place cyber insurance in the London Market for business domiciled almost anywhere worldwide so please feel free to get in touch if you would like us to assist you and your clients.

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