Crisis Control
Emergency Planning 101
When it comes to planning for sports events, what constitutes an effective emergency strategy? Is it a contingency plan for a natural disaster on the scale of Hurricane Katrina; a plan to evacuate when a fire occurs; or basic preparations to provide rapid response when player or participant injuries occur?
It could mean many of these, said industry experts, who agree that having basic components in place for an emergency plan can mean the difference between a dangerous situation and a safe resolution.
Donna Karl, vice president of client relations with the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), has endured such events as 9/11, SARS and Hurricane Katrina in her experience as a meeting planner for various organizations. “It’s impossible to lay out every scenario, and it’s impossible to figure them all out,” she said. “A fire in New Orleans can be very different from a fire in San Francisco.”
Karl believes not enough organizations have even the basic components of an emergency plan in place. “With so many natural disasters in recent years, I don’t understand why it hasn’t become a greater priority,” she said, estimating that only about 10 percent of event planners have a solid emergency plan.
Karl suggested just getting something started, “and don’t make the project of developing a plan more complex than it needs to be. Once you get a plan started, you can add to it year after year.”
At sporting events, there is potential for injury among players and participants, so event organizers should implement solid strategies for medical coverage, said Al Green, head athletic trainer and assistant director of athletics at Florida Southern College in Lakeland. “If it’s an amateur sporting event where athletes take the sport seriously and are well coached, then there will be less potential for injuries,” he said, adding that each event should be assessed on an individual basis. Green suggested that the better coaching an amateur sports group has received the better knowledge they have about safety and how to avoid injury.
Key Components Of Emergency Planning
Developing a sound communication plan during an emergency can be time consuming. Donna Karl, vice president of client relations with the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, recommended appointing one person to spearhead the effort. She also suggested planners could avoid getting overwhelmed by the vast details of emergency planning by starting with three key components:
• Identify an executive team that will be ready to step up to the plate. That team could include an executive director, an event coordinator, a public relations manager, a human resources coordinator of internal staff, and an IT director.
• Outline the specific responsibilities for each member, including who will communicate information to various entities.
• Practice. While still developing the plan, stage a “test run” for members of the executive team to perform their specific tasks.
Outlining Responsibilities
Eric Ward, who is director of athletics at Georgetown University and has had experience in planning such large sporting events as the Bluegrass State Games in Kentucky and the Tennessee Sports Festival, said one of the most basic strategies for emergency planning is to identify decision-makers upfront. “Make sure people understand the chain of command and who is responsible for making the decisions. “A lot of times, decisions are made too late.”
Recalling an incident in which a spectator at a softball game had a heart attack, Ward said, “Because we had a good plan in place, the people on site responded quickly and administered CPR and first aid until the emergency team arrived.” That person recovered, he added.
Karl agreed that the first step of developing an emergency plan is to develop sound communication strategies. “If you’re an event planner, ask yourself who is going to want answers from you. Think about all the angles and identify whose responsibility it is to communicate with all those entities,” such as participants, spectators, media, organizational staff, corporate sponsors and family members back home.
Karl also advised planners to make sure they have as many ways as possible to connect with key people—basic contact information, e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers, to name a few. “And, you need to have all that information in one place,” she said.
One strategy that worked well for the New Orleans CVB in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was to adequately communicate emergency strategies to key personnel outside the area. “When everything went down here, we were able to operate from Chicago,” Karl said.
Adequately communicating to volunteers at sporting events can be a challenge for many planners, Ward said. “The biggest challenge is educating volunteers on how to respond to an emergency situation. It’s about communicating a plan to everyone who needs to know.”
Plan For The Big & The Small
When putting emergency plans in place to respond to injuries, Green said that many groups consider strategies for the “catastrophic” injury, yet fail to adequately plan for the “everyday” injuries that can occur.
Or, “everyday” medical conditions like asthma or heart trouble. Advancements in medical treatment have made it possible for people with these and other ailments to play sports, Green said, so it’s possible that event owners won’t be aware of the conditions until an incident occurs.
Green also suggested that planners assess the risks and needs of individual events and develop separate strategies for emergency coverage. “Covering the X Games is going to be very different than covering golf,” he said, adding that the kinds of facilities and the number of participants and spectators of the different events should also factor into emergency strategies.