Prevue’s new survey of 100 corporate meeting planners revealed that not only are duty of care policies and practices around meetings inconsistent and loosely defined, but that attendee safety and security often lies in the hands of an already over-extended meeting planner.
The report, entitled “Risky Business,” found that despite turbulent geopolitical conditions and ever-increasing potential risks to meeting travelers, an alarming 40 percent of U.S. corporations do not have an overall duty of care plan in place for meeting attendees were a crisis to occur.
Clearly, many companies have not distinguished that meetings come with their own specific set of risks, which are different than those facing individual business travelers—whether that be attendees walking around cities wearing badges or a chartered bus full of meeting attendees traveling through a dangerous area.
A minority of respondents said their companies provide adequate safety information about international destinations and airlines. The vast majority—76 percent—do not require meeting owners to have emergency plans in place for their events.
When asked who is responsible for duty of care, 21 percent of respondents said the responsibility for attendee safety and security belonged solely to the meeting planner and 10 percent of respondents either didn’t know who was responsible for it or said it was up to the attendees themselves. In 44 percent of companies, the responsibility is shared between the planner, travel management company and internal/external security experts. Though 18 percent of respondents’ companies have internal risk management/security experts, only 1 percent hire an outside firm such as International SOS or iJET.
Download the complete survey here.
