What is event Insurance?

What is event insurance?

Event insurance is a form a one-off business insurance that you can buy to help protect you against a range of unexpected incidents. These can include liability and financial protection if a member of the public is injured or sick due to negligence, event cancellation and equipement insurance.

While it's not a legal requirement, if you in event management, it can be a wise financial decision. Events can be crowded, with many moving parts, and all it takes is one thing to go wrong for you to find yourself out of pocket for expensive legal fees or a cancellation.

What type of cover can I get with event insurance?

Average cost refers to the majority of people (60%) in the industry from historical costs. Quote based on an Event’s Managing business with one owner and $100,000 annual turnover.

Taking out public liability insurance for events

Many insurance providers offer public liability and other insurance policies that are specifically designed for event managers. If you are legally liable for any injury or property damage suffered by a third party, these policies can provide the protection you need. In fact, some venues make it a mandatory requirement for event managers to have some form of liability cover in place before they can put on an event.

If a member of the public is injured at an event due to your negligence, public liability insurance for events will cover you. As well as legal and medical costs, this type of policy will also cover any compensation you are required to pay.

If you think the money you’re required to pay for public liability insurance premiums is too much, think about how much a protracted legal battle might cost. What about if a court ruled that you had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to a third party? Would you be able to continue trading?

In some parts of Australia, public liability insurance for events is required by some organisers. Similarly, some event venues will also make it a requirement for organisers to have cover in place to protect themselves from financial loss.

What types of events can public liability insurance cover?

The following events can typically be covered under public liability insurance:

What types of insurance add-ons can I get for an event?

If you want to add extra coverage to your public liability insurance in order to tailor protection for your event, you have the flexibility to include the following additional options:

• Event cancellation cover. If your event has to be cancelled, interrupted or postponed due to unforeseen circumstances, this policy option covers your expenses and lost revenue. For example, if you need to cancel a festival due to poor weather, this policy can provide cover.
• Equipment cover. This option provides worldwide cover for event-related equipment such as sound and lighting, audiovisual, and entertainment and musical equipment. You can cover the relevant equipment while in use, in storage and in transit.
• Voluntary workers cover. If the success of your event depends on the help and assistance provided by volunteer workers, this optional extra provides personal accident cover for those volunteers.

Steps to manage an event properly and minimise risks

A crucial part of planning a successful event is ensuring you have effective strategies in place to minimise risk. A risk management plan is designed to identify all the potential risks your event is exposed to and then suggest how the organisers can lessen the likelihood of those risks occurring.

You’ll need to consider a range of issues when putting together a risk management plan including:

• How many people will be attending the event?
• Are there any inherent risks present at the event venue?
• Will there be infrastructure brought onto the event site?
• Will there be any moving vehicles on the event site?
• Is there anything at the venue that could become dangerous in the event of inclement weather?

It’s also important to develop an evacuation an emergency plan. This will include determining who is responsible for ensuring a safe evacuation, as well as where to evacuate to and whether emergency services need to be notified of any possible risks in advance.

Planning and running an event exposes you to a wide range of unique risks. However, finding the right form of public liability insurance cover for your needs will ensure that you have adequate protection in place should something go wrong.

Talk to a broker about event insurance

Frequently asked questions

• What protection does public liability insurance provide?

  Public liability insurance offers essential cover for a wide range of events, from flower and garden shows to music festivals and business conferences. The NSW Government’s Office of Fair Trading defines this cover as: “Insurance under which the insurer agrees to indemnify the insured for legal liability owed to another person who suffers loss or damage by reason of the insured's activities.” In other words, if your negligence causes injury or property damage to a third party, this type of cover protects you against any costs which may result.

• Can I get cover for a whole year?

  if you work as an event manager or stage manager and you organise more than one event per year, it may be more cost-effective to purchase annual event cover rather than a policy for each separate event.

  Annual policies provide public liability cover for all the events you manage over a 12-month period. Even if those events only take place during a short space of time, such as if you hold a few events over the summer months, buying an annual policy still works out cheaper than buying separate cover for each event.

  Annual public liability cover also provides increased flexibility. If you decide to add an additional festival or meeting to your regular events calendar, it will already be covered by your annual policy.

Written by

Alex Reid

Expert

Alex Reid is Finder’s business insurance cadet. He has a Master of Marketing from the University of Technology Sydney, with a background in business and sales. When not writing about business insurance for Finder he's a keen scuba diver, recently completed his 200th hour underwater and his PADI Divemaster certification. Before working at Finder he lived in Hangzhou China, where he studied Mandarin and Chinese culture. See full bio

Co-written by

Cameron Thach

Insurance Content Writer

Cameron is the local insurance scholar at Finder. With a diverse background writing in independent education, web-3, and finance, his mission is to build helpful content and that speaks to readers in language they understand. See full bio