The objective of crisis management is to develop structured solutions to crisis and emergency situations by allocating and utilising effective resources to ensure minimal impact to people, reputation and assets in this order of priority.
The new white paper does not only provide crisis management direction and guidelines to association executives, but is also aimed at meetings management companies an association is engaged with, e.g. Association Management Companies (AMCs), Professional Congress Organisers (PCOs), Destination Management Companies (DMCs), Hotel and Conference Venues.ICCA CEO Martin Sirk: “I’ve frequently stated during presentations that “there is no such place as a safe destination”, but that doesn’t mean that association meeting planners, PCOs, destination marketers, and venue directors can’t work together to help mitigate risks and prepare to deal effectively with unexpected crises. 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.”
There are two complementary forms of crisis management – operational and communications. Operational crisis management focuses on the practical organisation and arrangements to deal with a crisis with a priority on people and assets. Communications crisis management focuses on handling public relations and the media with a priority on reputation.
