What if something went wrong at your conference?

And have you done a risk assessment to minimise potential threats?

In this day and age what could go wrong? Do you have visions of figures masked in black balaclavas waving guns bursting through the doors of the auditorium, herding your delegates away for some fate unknown?

That could be a threat, but a threat involving far wider interests than your conference committee. Certainly terrorism may be at the back of our minds but it is something that the authorities handle, so let's leave it to them and concern ourselves with the prosaic but more handleable risks with the committee's control.

Managing risk is a key management task, perhaps the most important management task for conference committees. But how many actually give it any thought at all.

What is there to think about?

What is risk? We define risk in terms of any aspect of the conference which fails to meet the expectations of the organisers. What about the delegates or the sponsors I hear you say.You can bet that if these two key groups expectations aren't met they will have something to say to the organisers, as represented by the conference committee.

How many conference committees really understand the nature of the risks their conference faces?

And if they don't understand them, there is very little they will do about them.While it not possible to have a totally risk-free environment, it may be possible to avoid, reduce, eliminate or transfer some of the risks.

Assessing the risk and managing it is what it's all about. That's where judgment comes in. Sometimes you get it wrong. Hopefully, often you get it right. Certainly, failures are inevitable.

The Australian Standard 4360 on risk management defines risk as

"...the chance of something happening that will have an impact upon objectives.

It is measured in terms of likelihood and consequences."

To manage risk properly, conference committees need to know exactly what risks they face and the potential impact on their conference. So that's a good place to start.

What could be adversely impacted upon in your conference?

The areas of greatest impact are often related.

They could be the financial outcomes of the conference and attendance at it, stakeholder relationships and sponsor relationship.

The image of your organisation and its peak body (if there is one) could also suffer.

Do a quick brainstorm and you will be surprised at the number of areas of impact you and your committee can identify.

There can be a range of external factors as well.

Who can forget the pilot's strike, SARS or the aftermath of 9/11.

Conference committees can do little about these.

But the principal sources of risk may well be within the control of the conference committee.

In essence they can relate to the "product" being offered, how the conference is promoted, and whether the cost of attendance is too high.

Let's look at these a little further:

• Leadership (or lack thereof) has the potential to have an adverse impact on all areas of impact.The "lack of quality speakers", "poor program" and "poor documentation" (i.e. the product) can have an adverse effect.
• "Poor marketing" (promotion) and "high cost of attendance" (i.e. price) is also an important consideration.
• Lesser sources of risk, albeit still important include "lack of stakeholder support" and "transport" (as in accessibility for delegates).

Where to from here?

The combination of area of impact and source of risk will generate a large number of risks to be managed.How to decide which are the most important and on which the conference committee should be taking some action.

Prioritising the risks is where the Australian Standard comes in.

The key words are "likelihood and consequences".

Some risks may be very likely but the consequences don't amount to much.

So you need to try and identify which of the risks are more likely, and the consequences of which are significant.

They are the risks for which you will need to develop a risk mitigation or management strategy.

Or are you prepared to just wear the risk and what might happen?

At the worst you will have a plan ready to reduce or eliminate the potential threat to your conference.

And at the best, the conference committee will have a much clearer picture of what is required to successfully run their conference

So the threat to your conference may not be covered in a black balaclava but nevertheless it can be real, and something you can identify and do something about.