Take cover : do we really need insurance ?
IN A WORLD BESET BY CONFLICT , PANDEMIC , AND STRIKES , EVENT INSURANCE WOULD SEEM TO PROVIDE SOME COMFORT , RIGHT ? CMW EXAMINES ORGANISER EXPERIENCES AND OFFERS A FEW TIPS
A lthough event organisers are keen to move ahead smartly post-Covid now that the market is finally fully open once more , it is still worth reflecting on the event insurance value principle , not least as few companies in the sector were fully covered for what transpired during the Covid pandemic .
Global event organiser Hyve was one of the insurance success stories . Indeed , few organisers had such robust insurance policies as the Hyve Group which says it has collected close to £ 100m ( US $ 135m ) to date in payouts in recent years , mainly due to cover in place for Covid cancellations .
However , many organisers were not covered at all for cancellations either due to Covid , or during other natural catastrophes such as volcanic eruptions and even war . Strikes and deaths of a sovereign have proved challenging also for some event companies in recent times . Cover for much of this has generally been either unavailable or prohibitively expensive .
Bringing back communicable disease coverage to event cancellation insurance was identified recently in the USA by the Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance ( ECA ) as a key 2023 public policy priority .
David DuBois , International Association of Exhibitions and Events president and CEO , and ECA co-president , pledged the issue would be part of the ECA agenda for its advocacy work on Legislative Action Day Washington , DC on 1 June , 2023 .
Above : Paul Cook
The biggest problem is where there ’ s a mismatch between what the client assumed was covered , versus the reality of what the policy actually covers ’
Do we need insurance in a fast-changing landscape ? A recent Mash Media conference in London quizzed three experts in the event insurance field about whether we actually need event insurance services at all .
Clearly , the landscape can change quickly and with adversity comes fortitude , as illustrated by a recent article in our sister publication , Exhibition World about a Ukrainian organiser running a successful beauty products conference and trade fair in the Kyiv venue ’ s underground space-cum-bomb shelter .
But , with organisers increasingly working under tight margins , there may be a tug of war between taking on insurance and cost-saving measures .
The recent EN Indy Conference in London ’ s panel discussion on event insurance chaired by Mash Media managing director Julian Agostini heard from three experts in the field : John Rice , divisional director of Howden Insurance Brokers , George Tsangari , Group CFO at Montgomery Group and Mark Symons , underwriter at Convex .
Agostini asked whether organisers actually need cover to protect their events .
“ That ’ s something that each entity needs to make their own decision on ,” said Symons . “ Insurance is a product like any other . If it doesn ’ t do what it ’ s meant to do , then clearly there ’ s a fault in that product .”
Rice added : “ You get what you pay for . There is a clear difference between an off the shelf product transacted in a non personal way and having a relationship with your insurers which can hopefully deliver results .”
Tsangari said Montgomery Group was grateful to have a communicable disease extension in place pre-pandemic , meaning it was one of the few major event organising companies in the industry to successfully make a claim on the back of the Covid-19 outbreak .
“ When we took out the policy and
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