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.

Although 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.

 

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