Cassie Grenemeier – HospitalityLawyer.com

Risk Management: Attendee Health Issues/Illness

Cassie Grenemeier — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 16:00:25 +0000

In order to have the most comprehensive risk management plan, you have to cover a wide array of situations that can impact your meeting. It is easy to think of the big things, like storms, terrorist attacks and other events that have the potential to shut down an entire city. But, we also need to plan for situations that are on a smaller-scale, and may only impact a single attendee. This is where planning for attendee health issues, illness and accidents comes in.

With travel, a chock-full agenda and being surrounded by others, it is inevitable that someone is going to get sick during your event. Attendees work hard and play hard when at a meeting, conference or event. This can drain their immune system. Minimize the impact with these quick tips:

Think of illness and accidents in the site selection phase. Items to consider include access to hospitals or an on-site physician and diseases/viruses impacting the area.
As part of the registration process, make emergency contact details a requirement. Collect the name, phone number, alternate phone number and email of their designated contact. You should also collect if they need an ADA-compliant room or have any dietary health requirements.
During the pre-meeting stage, include communication to attendees reminding them to bring any prescription or over-the-counter medications with them. If the meeting is abroad, make sure attendees understand how to legally travel with medications. You should also have attendees check into medical insurance for travel overseas.
Before you arrive on-site, prepare or purchase a first aid kit.
It is best practice to become CPR-Heimlich Maneuver-AED certified in case of an emergency situation needing immediate response.
Try to incorporate some health/wellness initiatives into your meeting or event to minimize the chance of illness. If possible, incorporate immunity-boosting foods into the menu. A juice bar is camouflaged as a trendy, in-the-moment perk, while secretly providing sickness-fighting vitamins.
When selecting activities, keep your attendees in mind and avoid any activities that have a high-risk for injury or accidents. Work with your DMC or meeting planner to obtain necessary documentation on the activity and its safety level.
As part of your on-site contact list, include any on-site or on-call medical personnel, addresses and directions to the nearest hospitals and emergency phone numbers. Also locate on-site first aid relief and defibrillators. Include clear instructions on what to do/where to go should an emergency situation arise.
If after all of this, you still face a medical situation, remember you are the attendee’s friendly face. Do what you can to support them through the illness or injury and get them the medical attention they need.

Sources:

The 3 “A”s of Risk Management

Legal Briefs: 6 Ways to Protect Your Meetings

5 Steps to Managing Meetings Risk

Risk Management – Alcohol and Recreational Marijuana – Meetings & Events

Cassie Grenemeier — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 16:00:10 +0000

Hosting a meeting or event can open your company up to risk and liability. It is important to carefully examine each event individually, looking for what could go wrong, weaknesses and specific threats or hazards. Although this seems like a negative approach, it is actually a positive: after all, you want to make sure your attendees and company are kept safe. Identifying potential risks will help you avoid them from the start or think through how you would handle the situation should the unexpected occur.

This article is part of a series, identifying an area of risk and providing steps on how to minimize the threats these risks pose.

Alcohol and Recreational Marijuana

The only way to remove potential liquor liability from your event is to not serve alcohol to begin with. But let’s be honest. Most of the time, this isn’t an option. So how do you reduce the chance of risk related to alcohol? Here are some steps to follow for alcohol related risk management:

Protect yourself in the contract: During the very initial stages of planning your event you can limit your vulnerability to risk by including certain clauses in the contract with your hotel, event facility or anywhere else alcohol will be served. The most important clause to include is an indemnification clause. This clause should be included in all contracts, regardless of whether there will be alcohol served. You can also add that servers should be trained in safe alcohol service, the hotel will adhere to all federal and state laws regarding the sale of alcohol and bartenders/servers are not to serve attendees who appear to be intoxicated.
Have proper insurance: Before purchasing a liquor-liability insurance policy, review your company’s general liability policy. If the policy does not cover events where alcohol is served, look into a liquor-liability policy. This won’t completely eliminate your liability, but it will cover some situations. Lastly, confirm your venue/vendors are properly insured and licensed.
Develop policies and guidelines: Be proactive about expectations on alcohol consumption at events. Let attendees know ahead of time to have fun at the event, but also to drink and behave responsibly. If someone does get out of control, have guidelines already in place on how to handle intoxicated guests. You can set these guidelines not only for your on-site team, but also with the servers/bartenders. If possible, give a third-party (like your catering manager) authority over the event. If someone has obviously had too much to drink, you can notify this designated individual to handle the situation, always with tact. This can relieve you from resistance from the attendee as well as potentially awkward or embarrassing scenarios if a VIP or client is involved.
Provide a safe environment: The best way to discourage overindulgence and protect yourself from risk is to create an atmosphere that promotes responsibility and safety. Never offer alcohol during activities involving snow, water or transportation (think jet skiing). For other events, prevent your guests from becoming intoxicated by setting it up in way that does not promote overconsumption.

A few tips are:

Offer drink tickets instead of an open bar.
Offer non-alcoholic beverages. Variety and creativity will be more attractive than basic sodas.
Always serve food when alcohol is served. Eating slows down the absorption of alcohol. Limit salty foods; they make people thirstier.
Close your bar before the end of the event. This will give attendees the chance to sober up.
Station the bar in a location that isn’t constantly in guests’ paths.
Ensure bartenders are using jiggers to consistently measure their pours.
Keep drinks at the bar. If you have servers circulating with drinks or refilling glasses, many people will accept even if they weren’t planning on having more.
Even with all these measures in place, there is still the chance someone over indulges. Make sure you have transportation available for those unfit to get themselves home or back to their hotel room. This could be a bus, or be as simple as having taxis available or walking them up to their room.

The above steps should give you a good defense against liquor liability. But there is another culprit for liability cropping up across the nation, recreational marijuana. Although it is only legal in eight U.S. states so far (Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Washington, D.C.), it is important to consider the implications this substance has to your meetings.

The best defense is to develop a policy regarding pot use at your events. If your company’s overall policy doesn’t touch on this subject, be sure to have something in place. A strong policy will not only protect you during events held in states where it has been legalized, but also in states where it is still illegal. Sooner or later, you will meet in a state where weed has become decriminalized, and chances are, you will have at least one participant who might give it a try. Just like with any type of risk management, think of all possible outcomes and have a plan in place for how you will react.

Sources:
MeetingsNet: Seven Tips to Limit Liquor Liability
Strategic Meetings Management Consulting: Alcohol Risk Management
MeetingsNet: Stirring the Pot: What Planners Need to Know About Marijuana Liability
MeetingsNet: 5 Weird Ways Legal Marijuana Could Affect Your Events
Business Insider: Here’s where you can legally smoke weed now

No one likes a copycat: How to avoid and protect yourself from a spoofed travel website

Cassie Grenemeier — Sun, 29 Apr 2018 01:37:09 +0000

Many people are aware of email phishing schemes fraudsters use to collect personal information from unsuspecting victims. But many haven’t heard of another phishing method used by scammers, often unnoticeable to the naked eye—spoofed websites. This growing problem isn’t reserved for only banking or e-commerce sites. ARC recently reported two business travel agencies have fallen victim to spoofed websites. With this news, we want to give you the low-down on what a spoofed website is, how to spot one and ways to protect yourself and your company from these scams. With cyberattacks on the rise, it is important to consider phishing as part of your global security plan.

So, what is a spoofed website? In this scheme, a fraudster creates a fake website and/or email domain that looks legitimate, often copying a real website using logos, images and even the layout/content of the site. This phishing tactic usually asks the visitor to enter log-in credentials or personal details in an attempt to collect information used for identity theft. This tactic can also be used for other fraudulent activity. In the case reported by ARC, the fraudster used the fake website to appear legitimate to hotels and book stays using compromised credit cards.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to spot a spoofed website, but there are a few signs to be weary of. First, check the web address. A spoofed website usually contains a misspelled word, extra punctuation or is excessively long. You should not only check for these signs in a web browser, but also any text linked to hyperlinks—hover over hyperlinked text to see the full URL before clicking. Another sign of a spoofed website is pop-ups. Sometimes spoofers direct victims to legitimate sites and use a pop-up window to collect personal information. Always use the website you are familiar with, have used previously without issues and have bookmarked. Don’t rely on a Google search. Review any results returned by searches and compare the URLs.

Now that you know how to spot a spoofed site, here are some tips to protect yourself if you feel like you may have landed on one:

If you think you have found yourself on a spoofed site, scan the page for a Trust Seal. Many authentic sites use these badges issued by third-party security companies to show the site is verified, secure and safe. Please keep in mind that not every secure and authentic website, including Travel and Transport’s, marks their site with any type of “Trust Seal.” This is just one indicator of authenticity.
Check the address bar for more details on the site. Oftentimes the company name is shown alongside the URL in the address bar. Another item to look for is a lock showing the site is secure as well as “https” in the URL. This is a good first step, but not always a complete indicator of a “trusted site.” HTTPS certificates are relatively easy for an advanced hacker to obtain.
Anti-phishing software is another way to arm yourself against scammers. Many browsers have add-ons or plug-ins to help detect phishing sites. You can also utilize the site whois.com to determine when the website was created. This site helps determine if your own site has been spoofed.
If you are unsure if you are on a spoofed website asking for login information, give a fake password. If you use a fake password and appear to be logged in, you are most likely on a spoofed site. If you’re fake password is rejected, you should still be leery and take some of the other precautions mentioned in this list.
When in doubt, contact the company directly to verify the website.
Lastly, if you think you have fallen victim to a phishing site, immediately contact your IT team and report the site to the local police.

With processes becoming more and more automated through digital and web processes, it is important to take a comprehensive look at risk management to include crime and corruption that takes place on the web. As Travel and Transport’s Chief Technology Officer, Tim Krueger, puts it, “In today’s world of an ever changing and increasing threat landscape, user awareness and training are essential elements to any modern security program. Individual diligence in identifying and avoiding potential scams and threats is often the first and last line of defense.” We hope you never have to use these tips, but keep them in your back pocket in case you ever happen upon a fraudster.

Sources:
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-says-web-spoofing-scams-are-a-growing-problem
https://www.globalsign.com/en/blog/how-to-spot-a-fake-website/
https://www2.arccorp.com/support-training/fraud-prevention/fraud-alerts/fa01262018/
https://safety.yahoo.com/Security/PHISHING-SITE.html