Even as attendees may be thrilled to bits to be travelling and meeting in-person again, let’s face it: For event professionals, amidst the excitement of planning conferences and travel, there’s a sobering reality. We’re not living in a 2019 kind of world anymore. Our new normal includes a nasty bingo card of novel risks—from new COVID strains (still), to global confl icts, raging wildfi res and gun violence. Walter Damus, senior account executive at Calgary-based Elite Travel Management, says, “One of the things this COVID pandemic has done is put the spotlight back onto duty of care.” Speaking to the urgency, Damus says, “I had a conversation with someone the other day who said, ‘If you tell me that you run your business the same way now as you did two years ago, either you’re lying to me or you’re about to go out of business.’" While perhaps we could relegate duty of care to policy blurbs before, today it’s imperative that organizations keep it top of mind when planning travel and events, and to think deeply about how to keep people safe. We asked Damus and other industry experts to weigh in on duty of care, emerging issues and their advice for event professionals. A defi nition “Defi ning duty of care,” says Paul Doucet, regional director, security intelligence and assistance, Americas, at International SOS, a health and security services fi rm, “is the responsibility of employers primarily to their staff members, and the responsibility of organizations to their whole staff, to ensure that they’re providing adequate support to individuals who are either travelling or undertaking other duties on behalf of the organization at which there may be an issue to their safety or well- being, health or security.” Emerging issues Among risks, Damus says, “There is confl ict all over the world. It’s not just in Ukraine. We’ve had to evacuate folks out of Africa, and many different countries.” Closer to home, in the US, Doucet sees increases in gun violence and workplace violence posing duty of care considerations. “There are more climate related issues coming up,” Damus says, “all sorts of storms, fl ooding. Monsoon season is worse than it ever has been. There has been just a whole slew of things over the last four to fi ve years that has made a big differ- ence, as well, to duty of care.” Lastly, legislative changes can raise duty of care concerns. For example, the recent US Supreme Court decision over reproductive rights caused some organizations to fl ag access to healthcare for pregnant attendees as a potential risk. As a result, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, citing concerns over Louisiana’s abortion laws, recently scrapped its 2023 annual meeting which was slated for New Orleans. The new game plan Here are some of the key elements in a robust duty of care approach: • Tristan Smith, vice-president, commercial small to medium-sized enterprises at Egencia, based in London, notes, “The fi rst step is Create & INSPIRE Travel in a new normal by Connie Jeske Crane DUTY OFCARE NOW Winter 2022/23 | Ignitemag.ca | 41
