Event risk management plan: ACTION!

Puerto Rican Latin music star Andy Montañez and his managers had to postpone his concert (planned to be held in the Coliseum of Puerto Rico Jose Miguel Agrelot) after suffering a serious transit accident in Colombia last April 30. The concert was originally dated Saturday May 26, where he would celebrate his 50 years of participation in the Latin music industry. After one of the tires of the bus where he was traveling with 4 musicians exploited, the bus left the road, hit a tree, and overturned. The accident caused the singer a trauma in his spine and severe lacerations in his body and right foot. The artist was the most injured of all the affected.

After being attended in the Santa Teresa de Fundacion Clinic, Dr. Reynaldo Ferrerira (emergency surgeon) said that despite the lesions and the operation that had to be performed to fix the foot, he is stable and out of danger. Still, medical studies have been done to monitor the artist’s spine and general health.

How unexpected incidents like these affect event management? Tropical Productions, company in charge of the concert’s planning and coordination, had the obligation to postpone the long-awaited celebration of Andy’s 50-year career in the music industry. The concert was rescheduled, and will be performed July 14 at 8:30 p.m. (in the same arena). The tickets that have already been sold for the original concert will be accepted and honored. The ticket price range also remains the same, starting in $ 25.00 to $ 65.00.

Besides responding to an event planning and coordination, event planners must implement a risk management plan to solve situations like these. There are times where the guest talent cannot participate anymore in the event for reasons beyond his or her control (like Andy’s case). To know what to do when uncontrollable incidents happen, a risk management plan will identify possible risks to develop and implement programs to protect the organization and prevent event loss.

More structured it is important to assess and evaluate to identify, analyze and prioritize potential risks; select the methods to prevent the event and the company’s loss; implement the best methods; monitor results; and modify if is needed.

FIBA Americas 2012 Male Centrobasket

An upcoming exiting event is this year’s Centrobasket male tournament to be held in the Coliseum of Puerto Rico Jose Miguel Agrelot. This tournament is sponsored by FIBA Americas (Pan-American Basketball Confederation), a non-profit organization created by FIBA (International Basketball Federation) to represent the federation in the Americas. FIBA Americas has jurisdiction from Canada to Argentina.

Hosting the event is de Puerto Rican Basketball Federation. The games will be held from June 18 to June 24, presenting 10 international teams which are: Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, United States, Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico. In May 9 draws were made in the Puerto Rican Olympic House to divide the teams in two groups. Team A is composed by: Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Cuba, Panama and Nicaragua. And in Team B there is: Dominican Republic, Virgin Islands, United States, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Mexico.

The tournament is a full-house event. The price range goes form $5.66 to $32.13. The games scheduled from Monday to Friday will start at 1:00 p.m. Those assigned to Saturday and Sunday will start at 6:00 p.m. In these two days the semifinals and finals will be presented.

The Coliseum of Puerto Rico, the principal multipurpose arena of the island, will be filled with Olympic colors to present to all sport fans one of the most important international athletic events. Fortunately, the Puerto Rican national basketball team is last year’s Centrobasket gold medalist.

Important about these types of events is the message that can be transmitted. Besides being a cultural event that brings together hundreds of talented people, it also demonstrates the diversity of events that can be done. General people think mostly about concerts the first time that they hear the word “event” or “event planning”. The reality is that events like this tournament help the multicultural integration by merging many countries in a specific place. This is one of the event planning purposes: enriching its participants and attendees trough entertainment.