You never want to find yourself in a crisis situation, but the benefits of being prepared for one are enormous. A few tips from association and meetings pros who’ve been there.

Joyce Paschall, CAE

Director of education and meetings, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

“I’ve always been a big believer in conference cancellation insurance. It’s partly the peace of mind, but more than that in many cases, and for many associations, it’s a significant source of income. To me, it would almost be malpractice if one were to not have CCI.”

Tom Noonan

CEO, Visit Baltimore

“Make sure that your crisis communications plan dovetails with the city’s crisis communications plan. If I was a meeting planner, I’d be sure to ask things like ‘What does your crisis communication document look like? Walk me through the process. What crises have you dealt with in your city, and how did you handle it?’ Hopefully you don’t have to use it, but these things just come out of left field.”

William Prentice

Executive director, Ambulatory Surgery Center Association

“We try to war-game things out better now than we did prior to our Boston meeting. You don’t expect something like the Boston Marathon bombing to ever happen, but there are so many different things that could happen that could impede a meeting or create problems. Simulating those scenarios helps tremendously.”

(Evan Vucci/Associated Press)