Can Your Firm Handle Crisis?

Crisis and Event Management - A Concept and Cases Relevant to Asia

A crisis can give birth to an event. Critical situation management is a systematic process-driven effort to minimize damage or loss. An event management program in Asia must therefore have a separate plan to avert a possible crisis. At many events an uncontrolled situation has led to terrible loss of life, property, and value. Nowadays, large companies make a contingency plan as part of their event management program - the inclusion of crisis management in their event planning process.

Any event can trigger a crisis. Take for example, a trade show. Overcrowding of the event venue can lead to a stampede, suffocation, crushing of center stage and other damaging incidents. The event management program should therefore be prepared to handle any such crisis. Event management firms all over Asia draw up an emergency plan of action (POA) while planning for an event.

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The Essentials of a POA

Plan of Action in times of a disaster or crisis must have the following:

1. Immediate Action of Operations

2. Prohibiting and Preventing Actions

3. Arrangement of all Emergency Services

4. Quick Information Flow

Elaboration

The first point states that in the event of a crisis, identifying the immediate steps to be taken to help the sufferers is the first and foremost action. For example, in the event of a fire, the evacuation process from the event venue must be the immediate priority. In such a situation, lives are to be saved first and then property. The event management agency in or outside Asia responsible for handling the event must deploy assistants who can hasten the evacuation process and save lives.

The second point states that after the first step is ensured, any further loss or damage to the lives and property must be prevented. For instance, the immediate deployment of water and fire extinguishers to put out the fire. The use of sand bags and destroying those elements where the fire has taken hold are some of the "situation on demand" actions. An event management program should thus be prepared to apply simultaneous prohibiting and preventing actions.

The third point demands a problem-free and efficient deployment of emergency services, including calling up ambulances, first aid, doctors, volunteers, fire fighters etc. The event manager must therefore be equipped with contact numbers of all these emergency service providers. If you want to choose your career as an event manager, know the tips.

The fourth and last point calls for an easy process of information flow. To prevent rumor, panic and other possible social threats, and to update the public and the senior executives of the company for whom the event was hosted, requires efficient communication stating the actual facts and figures. Data gathering for recording the crisis is critical, since it provides the necessary information to handle such events in future.

Event management programs, particularly in Asia, need to be monitored against this four point check list, because Asia still lacks a well defined infrastructure and systematic plan to handle such critical events, even though the continent has emerged as the strongest proponent of event management programs. Effective meeting and planning actions to tackle all these events were originally ignored. Social organizations and media hyped unfortunate incidents such that the public began to panic. Improper communication in society and in the market misled us.

Some Cases

Asia has still not forgotten the SARS scare. This event highlighted the serious issue of managing a medical crisis. Panic, rumor, and bad publicity all added to the woes of those infected, and caused serious negative impact on the people who were returning from SARS infected countries to their homelands.

Bird flu is another incident which demonstrates the unpreparedness of concerned authorities and the inability of government bodies to tackle the situation effectively.

We can cite more examples, but these two are still fresh in our memories. Agencies that were responsible for managing and coordinating the events that followed the outbreak of each of these crises failed miserably. The result: fear and panic spread, rumor and harsh actions followed, and our society suffered. Apart from losing lives, we lost our common sense.

Poultry lie buried in many countries, irrespective of whether they were infected or not, with farmers yet to be compensated for their loss. People infected with the common cold were returned by hospitals, resulting in loss of life. Large corporations together with government authorities could have worked together in tackling such issues, using proper media and knowledge management, holding seminars and conferences in colleges, schools, in villages, and the crisis could have been minimized.

Concluding Fact

Coordinating different bodies of authorities needs to be undertaken and hence efficient agencies with experience of handling crisis management situations in Asia should have been deployed.

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