IN COOPERATION with Safehotels Alliance, ICCA has released a new white paper designed for association executives and meetings management companies to tackle any crisis situation.
CEO of ICCA Martin Sirk said: “Planning, foresight, great contingency preparation, understanding how to communicate internally and externally, and perhaps most critically, teamwork, are all covered in this new ICCA document, which we hope will enable international association meetings to safely navigate an ever more complex and challenging global environment.”
Two complementary forms of crisis management – operational and communications – are covered in the document.
Provided by Safehotels, the operational guidelines contain the main components of a crisis management and emergency plan, roles and responsibilities of a crisis management team, an appendix with practical guideline templates and links to useful resources and information.
For the crisis communications guidelines, they comprise Managing the media by regular ICCA congress speaker, Tina Altieri of Media Australasia Xchange, as well as an article by ICCA’s communication strategist, Mathijs Vleeming. Called Reactive or proactive? Seven factors for effective crisis communication for international meetings, it also includes a crisis communication checklist to prepare before an event.
The appendices include two ICCA case studies on how the organisation dealt with potential crises involving an outbreak of dengue fever before the 2012 ICCA Congress in Puerto Rico, and geopolitical challenges related to ISIS and Ebola at the 2014 ICCA Congress in Turkey, as well as an article on dealing with the media spotlight in times of crisis.
The crisis management guidelines are part of a series of ICCA publications designed to help associations run more efficient meetings.
Associations can download the document by registering on www.associations.iccaworld.com.
