Crisis prepared meetings: Crisis preparedness program components and factors influencing adoption by meeting planners

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was four-fold: first, to determine the recommended components of a comprehensive crisis preparedness program for meetings. Second, to research the crisis preparedness measures taken by meeting planners in the U.S. with regard to the meetings they are responsible for planning and/or managing. Third, to identify elements which influence the implementation of crisis preparedness measures by meeting planners. Finally, to conduct a gap analysis of the actual implementation of crisis preparedness measures relative to the recommended implementation. A Delphi panel was used to identify the crisis preparedness measures that meeting planners should be implementing. These measures became the basis of a survey. Members of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) and the MiForum e-mail list completed the survey, the results of which were analyzed using quantitative analysis.

Findings and Conclusions: 2,041 people were included in the initial sample of PCMA members. Additionally, the survey was sent to the subscribers of MiForum, an e-mail list of meeting planners. Of the 564 total surveys that were ultimately collected, 89 were deleted due to insufficient response. This resulted in 475 usable surveys. The findings that meeting planners are not implementing crisis preparedness measures consistently for all of the meetings that they plan, that there are some significant differences in implementation based on meeting planner characteristics, and that there are significant gaps between the recommended implementation and the actual implementation. The study also suggested some reasons for the lack of consistent implementation of crisis preparedness measures for meetings.