Meeting and event planners are no strangers to risk management. To help ease the burden, the American Society of Association Executives recently published a comprehensive toolkit — the Associations’ Guide to Risk and Crisis Management — to help meeting and event planners and association leaders navigate the complexities of risk and crisis management.

The toolkit was produced in collaboration with the leading associations on risk, the Risk and Insurance Management Society, and security, the American Society for Industrial Security International. Their tools, frameworks and models were instrumental in the development of the toolkit, and will help raise the standard of risk and crisis management for the association profession.

With meeting safety ranking as a top risk for associations, the toolkit takes a deeper dive into meetings safety both through a case study provided by the Risk and Insurance Management Society, as well as insights from an American Society of Association Executives’ survey and further collaboration with Destinations International, which analyzed risk and crisis management at events from a destination perspective.

The Associations’ Guide to Risk and Crisis Management is designed to help planners and associations:

  1. Assess where their association stands in comparison to peers on the risk and safety spectrum, providing valuable benchmarks and insights.
  2. Understand the critical terms and concepts related to risk, emergency and crisis management, ensuring their team is well-versed in the language and practices of effective crisis management.
  3. Learn how to initiate an enterprise approach to risk and crisis management tailored to the unique context of associations, setting a strong foundation for future resilience.

“In today’s unpredictable environment, robust risk and crisis management planning is essential to safeguard the safety of attendees and overall success of association meetings,” according to American Society of Association Executives president and CEO Michelle Mason, FASAE, CAE. “Proactive strategies and preparedness not only mitigate potential threats, but also instill confidence and resilience within the association community.”

Meeting and event planners, and association leaders can download a free copy of the Associations’ Guide to Risk and Crisis Management here.