Are you prepared for severe weather?

For venue managers across the globe, severe weather can strike at any moment. The aftermath could leave your venue damaged or inoperable – or even worse – put the lives of your guests in jeopardy. Would you know what to do when hazardous weather hits your community?

To prepare for all types of unstable weather, the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM) has developed the Severe Weather Planning Guide along with conferences, schools and other publications. These offerings help venue managers prepare for whatever Mother Nature doles out.

“In 2008, an EF2 tornado struck downtown Atlanta and our three facilities including the Georgia Dome during the SEC basketball tournament,” said Kevin Duvall, chief operating officer, Georgia World Congress Center Authority, Atlanta. “Emergency training and preparation assisted us in dealing with the immediate issues at hand. Our heightened awareness of the power of Mother Nature make IAVM’s Severe Weather Planning Guide and Academy of Venue Safety & Security (AVSS) must have resources for our staff’s ongoing preparation.”

The 70-page guide provides venue managers with tools to build important relationships with emergency management personnel, establish a command center, create a severe weather event team, understand how and when to monitor weather conditions, and know how and when to communicate with staff, guests, event presenters and others. This invaluable resource also equips venue managers with a template to assist in creating their own severe and hazardous weather plan, and features a lexicon of terms and a glossary of acronyms.

“The safety and security of venue guests are top priorities at IAVM,” said Vicki Hawarden, CMP, IAVM president and CEO. “This organization is committed to providing innovative safety and security guidelines, resources and training that are pertinent and useful to our membership. They help them protect their number one priority: the lives of the guests who attend their events.”