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Event security is serious business these days. Here are ten events that make it a top priority.

Getting a call from a keynote speaker cancelling a session is the nightmare of every event professional. It is even worse when the announcement comes in the middle of the night! This is exactly the situation that the MPI event team behind World Education Congress (WEC) had to face when Magic Johnson backed out of his All Attendee Lunch keynote late in the evening of the second day.

Risk management, security procedures and emergency planning are all top-of-mind with today’s meetings industry professionals. Just like events – pre-conference meetings (aka pre-cons) come in all shapes and sizes. I’ve been at pre-cons with three people and with 20 people. I’ve been at pre-cons with a formal agenda and with no agenda. I’ve been at pre-cons with my client present and on my own.

The event dates are set, the venue has been selected, and the contracts are in place. Let the planning process begin! As an event organizer, you have an enormous amount of logistics to coordinate and massage into place as the event rapidly approaches. Everything from the event schedule, to registration, speakers and sponsors, food and beverage, you are responsible for it all! The list goes on and on as you work to strategically organize each category down to the finest details.

When I heard early reports of what happened in Manchester at the Ariana Grande concert, I experienced the same feeling of receiving the news someone dear to me had died.

Out of respect we have waited to publish this article and to reflect on where we go from here. It is very easy to jump on some news and make a patronizing article. It’s very easy to say, we told you! It’s very easy to say, you should have thought about it!

If there’s one thing that’ll set a meeting professional’s teeth on edge, it’s a costly surprise—especially when it’s one that could have been addressed in the contract up front, and even more especially when it comes to costly attrition. While there are any number of ways to approach attrition in negotiations, here are some strategies that attorney, speaker, and College of Coastal Georgia professor Tyra Hilliard, Esq., PhD, CMP, outlined in a recent MeetingsNet Master Class webinar that can help you negotiate an attrition clause that’s fair to both parties.

Caution: Always have the person who contacts you on behalf of a company check to see if the organization uses a third-party procurement company or agency. I have posted before about third-party procurement models coming to North America. They have been popular in Europe for some time. I have just had the most horrendous experience so I am sharing it so you can avoid similar drama.

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” This quote comes from Mike Tyson who probably meant it literally, but it applies just as well to situations outside the boxing ring where your plan can be derailed by any number of surprises, leaving you struggling to come up with a new one. You may think you have the perfect event response plan in place for your meetings, but until you test it you won’t find the holes.

At the Duty Free Show of the Americas, which takes place in Florida each spring, attendees come face-to-face with almost every conceivable item that might be sold in an airport duty-free store — from necklaces and perfume to cigars, luggage, and, of course, booze. “They serve a lot of alcohol, and they’d like people to sample this, that, or the other thing,” said Mark Gatley, regional general man-ager for SMG at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center, which hosted the show for a few years before it moved to the Orlando World Center Marriott.

Event planners on the hunt for a new software provider may find that there are more options to choose from these days than in previous years. That’s because our industry is growing and fast, with research showing that the global event management software market will increase 8.24% by 2020.

Disasters can take many forms—from earthquakes and floods that damage infrastructure and halt business, to war, terrorism, cyber attacks, and pandemics, to technological failures such as power outages. The one thing they all have in common is the potential to cause trouble for, and perhaps even shut down, your meetings.

Crises happen to the best of us – that’s life. In the events industry, there are many small details that go into the perfect event, so it should come as no surprise that things could possibly go awry here and there. Despite the fear of something going wrong, the best way to address a crisis is to prepare for it in advance. In some cases, that means avoiding the issue entirely while, in other cases, it means having a crisis response plan ready should something happen.

“In 2015, there were 38% more security incidents detected than in 2014” as reported by PwC, The Global State of Information Security. And that number may continue to grow unless privacy and security becomes a bigger priority for the events industry.

With minutes until the curtain draw, you peer into the sold out stadium as the crowd roars in anticipation. This is the moment you’ve been dreaming of. You see, ten months prior, this moment was all but a dream. You knew you were ready to take your events to the next level but wasn’t sure how. Although you have access to the top presenters within your company, you knew it was time to book an outside speaker.