Risk Assessment

Typically, risks are assessed against 2 axes - the severity of the impact they have on your event and probability of them happening, by placing them on the chart such as the one below. Next, they are classified into several categories on a low - high scale, for example:

  • low risk - the risk is acceptable; it is OK to proceed with the event planning but keep an eye on the risk;
  • medium risk - the risk needs to be addressed and mitigation strategy put in place;
  • high risk - the risk is critical and may have an adverse effect on your event and stakeholders; you may even have to rethink if the event should go ahead.
Risk assessment chart

You can decide for yourself where to draw the boundaries between the risk categories on your risk chart. It is also OK to classify your risks on a more fine-grained scale, e.g. low, medium, high, extreme - based on your individual risk assessment. For example, consider the following risk assessment matrix (obtained from Wikipedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 licence).

Risk assessment matrix

For events such as the CW or CC, we typically look at the following risk aspects:

  • The main stakeholder and funder (the Software Sustainability Institute)
  • Other stakeholders (sponsors, keynote speakers, attendees, session chairs, organising committee members, volunteers/helpers at the event)
  • Budget
  • Event agenda
  • Venue
  • Catering
  • Communication (with various stakeholders)
  • Policies, guidelines and documentation

When identifying risks, bear in mind that they can happen at different times in the planning and implementation stages before the event, as well as during and even after the event.

Here are some examples of risks identified when organising an event such as the CW or CC.

  • 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 go off track in their talk or use offensive language
  • Attendees
    • Not enough attendees or many dropping out right before the event
    • Too many attendees
    • Attendees complain about a certain aspect of the event
  • Session chairs
    • Not enough session chairs
    • Session chair fails to show up or it is unclear to them how to chair a session
  • 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
    • Do not have appropriate access to documentation
    • 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 showing up or not fulfilling the tasks assigned to them
    • Feel unappreciated or excluded
  • Budget
    • Insufficient budget (e.g. registration fees not set at the appropriate level)
    • Unexpected expenses (e.g. extra catering, unforeseen or unbudgeted costs, 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
    • Speakers dropping out at the last minute
    • Not fulfilling certain plans (e.g. social activities, good venue for conference dinner, etc.)
    • Unexpected bad weather so cannot e.g. take group photo or do social activities outdoors
    • Post-event feedback highlights missed opportunities
  • Venue
    • Not finding the best venue for the specific date
    • Venue cancels before the event
    • Problems at the venue (accessibility, AV, etc.), fire tests, real fire alarm, venue needs to be evacuated
  • Catering
    • Not finding specific catering for the specific date
    • Catering cancels before the event
    • Lack of certain food of preference, wrong food delivered, missing food items, food not properly labelled for allergens and dietary requirements
  • Communication
    • Lack of transparent, efficient and effective communication with different stakeholders, e.g. not communicating clearly aims, expectations, planning decisions, task delegation
    • 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)
    • Certain documentation gets lost or corrupted

See a more detailed example of risk assessment along with risk rating.