What is Event Insurance cover?

If someone gets hurt at your event, you have to cancel last-minute or your kit gets damaged, what would that mean for your business?

When things go wrong, insurance is there to cover you, meaning you don’t have to worry about unexpected bills and can keep on running. It’s like having an umbrella on you when the weather suddenly turns from clear skies to thundering rain.

What type of events should have insurance?

Pretty much every single event should have some kind of insurance; any event where there are attendees has some kind of exposure. The most basic forms are public liability and employers’ liability.

Public liability can protect you from a claim if someone is injured at your event, whereas employers’ liability can cover claims if an employee or volunteer is injured. Normally the event organiser will be required to submit a public liability insurance certificate to the venue where the event is taking place because it’s unlikely the venue will want to cover any claims through their insurance caused by the organiser’s negligence. Employers’ liability is a legal requirement for most companies hiring staff in the UK.

Public liability is the first building block of any event insurance portfolio, which can include up to eight different products.

What is the cost of public liability insurance based on?

It will be a mixture of the type of event, the number of people attending, how long the event is and where it’s taking place. Are there any hazardous activities? The further up the scale of hazardous, the higher the price is likely to be.

What type of activity is deemed hazardous?  

Every insurer will be different, but generally it’s if there are any at height activities or at speed activities or any activities going on in the water.

What other types of insurance are available for event organisers?

Cancellation insurance is the other main building block – it’s also called ‘cancellation and abandonment insurance’ or ‘contingency insurance.’ This is protection of the event organiser’s budget, including the expenses and possibly some profit, which added together is the revenue. Any event organiser who is financially at risk if the event does not take place or is postponed or curtailed should consider buying this type of cover.

The need to cancel an event can occur through freak weather or the venue not being available on the day. In that situation, the venue will only refund the venue fee; they’re not going to pay for all the organiser’s other costs. This insurance is an indemnity policy and puts them back in the same position had it not have happened.

Another type of insurance that many event organisers take out is property insurance, which covers any equipment they bring in, such as AV. Events are getting more sophisticated and organisers are bringing in increasing amounts of kit! It would have cost a lot of money to bring that property in and the organisers would have cover for that.

What are the usual exclusions?

With cancellation policies, one of the main exclusions is terrorism, but we automatically offer a quote for terrorism cover depending on the details provided to us – it’s what’s called an ‘extension of cover’.

The other main exclusions are a lack of interest in the event or lack of ticket sales. If you’re no longer able to finance the event, that also tends to be excluded.

It’s very important to fully understand any exclusions. Our policy is worded in plain English and is specifically aimed at event organisers and exhibitors to make this as simple as possible. I’d always recommend dealing with an event insurance expert and buying a policy specifically designed for events, not just a general insurance policy.

Where do people go wrong with their event insurance?

Not buying their event insurance early enough is a common issue. This should be done as early as possible because the period of their insurance is from the day you buy it to the end of the agreed cover period. As soon as you have spent some money, maybe securing the venue – even if the event is 12 months away – you have something there that is potentially non-recoverable.

We see a lot of event organisers leave purchase of the cover until there is a major problem going on in the world. We’ve have seen a real increase in enquiries for terrorism cover for events in Paris and now the price has gone up because it’s more risky. Those who bought the cover before the Paris attacks would have got wider cover at a more competitive price.

To give another example, if Eurostar announced strikes for the next eight weeks, people whose events are dependent on getting across on Eurostar would find it more difficult to buy an event cancellation policy to cover them for that particular problem. Whereas at the moment there is no exclusion for Eurostar strikes because there are none planned.

One of the other benefits of buying cancellation insurance early is the ‘additional expenses cover’ – this is any problem with the event before the event date. If the reason for the problem – what we call the ‘proximate cause’- is covered, a good insurer can help with additional expenses to keep the event going.

Say there’s a problem with the venue two months before the event, the insurer is going to help pay for the additional cost of moving the event to a new venue. That keeps the event going and the cost is likely to be less than if the event was off.

If an event organiser only buys their insurance a week before the event, then they’re not getting the full benefit of the policy, so the biggest piece of advice we can offer is buy early!

Conclusion

Make sure you’re properly covered! No matter how well organised your event is, there are always eventualities that can’t be planned for, and insurance can protect you against the unforeseen. Public and employee liability insurance is the minimum you may want to consider for any type of event, but cancellation, and extended cover for contingency, property or terrorism could prove a valuable investment.

What else do I need?

For more information or a quotation for this type of cover, please Contact Us, call 01702 560230 or email us at [email protected]