Risk Identification

The first stage of risk management is identifying risks. Note that as risk management is an ongoing activity, new threats will come up as the event organisation proceeds, existing potential issues will be re-phrased, and some others will be deleted. Risk management will take place until the Closing Down the Event Project Stage.

Here are some examples of risks identified when organising an event such as the Collaborations Workshop or CarpentryConnect.

  • The main stakeholder
    • Event goals not aligned with the main stakeholder goals
    • Incidents during the event can damage the main stakeholder’s reputation
  • Sponsors
    • Not enough sponsorship
    • Offers made to sponsors that cannot be fulfilled
    • Sponsor’s logo is not displayed at all at the event (or not displayed appropriately), spelling and branding mistakes occur
  • Keynote speakers
    • Delay in confirmation or dropping out
    • Speaker goes off track in their talk or uses offensive language
  • Attendees
    • Not enough attendees or many dropping out right before the event
    • Too many attendees
  • Session chairs
    • Not enough session chairs
    • Ineffective chairing of the sessions
    • Do not turn up on the day
  • Organising committee members
    • Not kept up to date with the progress of event planning
    • Not sure how to contribute or how to share information and coordinate between different organising committee teams
    • Not completing tasks assigned to them
    • Do not know where help is needed and what their duties are at the event
    • Feel unappreciated or excluded
  • Volunteers/helpers at the event
    • Not enough volunteers
    • Volunteers not fulfilling the tasks assigned to them
    • Feel unappreciated or excluded
    • Do not turn up on the day
  • Budget
    • Insufficient budget (e.g. registration fees not set at the appropriate level)
    • Unexpected expenses (e.g. extra catering, damage to the venue)
    • Overspending
  • Event agenda
    • Not designing an effective agenda to meet the event’s goals and keep people’s interest and focus
    • Not fulfilling specific plans (e.g. social activities, good venue for conference dinner, etc.)
    • Unexpected bad weather so cannot do activities outdoors
  • Venue
    • Venue cancels before the event
    • Problems at the venue (accessibility, AV, fire alarm etc.)
  • Catering
    • Catering cancels before the event
    • Lack of a particular food of preference, wrong food delivered, food not adequately labelled for allergens and dietary requirements
  • Communication
    • Participants confused about the agenda or not getting information on the right channels and at the appropriate time/frequency
    • During the event - signage not properly placed, people do not know who to contact to address certain queries or concerns
    • Participants do not receive information about what to expect after the event
  • Policies, guidelines and documentation
    • Lack of information or information dispersed at various locations
    • Lack of clearly stated policies and guidelines (e.g. Code of Conduct policy and breach reporting and handling procedures, privacy policy, contribution guide)

See the example risk management template for more information on how to elaborate on identified risks, e.g. using the if-then method for writing up risks can help to formulate and infer mitigation plans.