Why do event planners need insurance?
Injury at an event
Event planning combines logistical work, attention to detail and client relationship management. There are many moving parts, which can create opportunities for health and safety issues. During a conference setup, you’re managing the installation of marketing flags when your client arrives to run through the agenda. Unfortunately, a guest speaker enters seconds later and is injured by an unsecured banner pole. Public liability insurance can fund legal support and compensation pay-outs for event organisers in such cases.
Disappointed clients
Despite working for months on a charity fundraiser for your client, they’re dissatisfied with how the event turned out. You managed to secure their dream venue and the food all went down incredibly well, but the comedy act you booked as the headline entertainment didn’t turn up for their set. As an event organiser, you understand that things can go wrong unexpectedly – professional indemnity insurance can defend you if a client claims you were at fault for the no-show.
Organiser injury
Your organisation skills are well-oiled, but you can’t be everywhere. During a busy patch, you employ another event organiser to help with an awards evening. While dressing the venue, they use a step ladder to hang bunting but the hinge collapses and they fall, twisting their ankle. They say the injury was your fault and make a claim against your small business. Employers’ liability insurance can mitigate financial risk by helping to fund defence and settlement of legal proceedings.
What insurance is available for event organisers?
There are two main types of insurance for event organisers to consider – business insurance for day-to-day risks, such as chance cyber-attacks, and event insurance for the individual events you commission. Specialist event cover can protect an event organiser from a range of common risks in the field, such as unexpected cancellation.
The below covers relate to our specialist event insurance while the following ‘insurance for your business’ section explains our business policies.
Insurance for your event
Your event organiser business might specialise in conferences, exhibitions, one-off special events or charity fundraisers – either way, we can help to source appropriate cover. If it’s overseas, then our event travel insurance can provide employee replacement cover, for instance. For private parties, it’s helpful to have generous liability insurance in case of accidents. Conference organisers can even cover projected profits. In the events industry, the occasion itself can bring risks you may not face in the course of day-to-day operations, so we can help to tailor cover for the unique nature of your event.
Event cancellation
No event organiser likes to call the whole thing off, but there are times when unforeseen circumstances can get in the way. Your business insurance won’t cover event cancellation, so you need specific event insurance to benefit from this. If you need to cancel, abandon, curtail, rearrange or relocate an event, this specialist event cancellation insurance helps to cover irrecoverable expenses, such as venue costs. You can also tailor this product to insure projected profits.
Public liability insurance
Events revolve around people, and this brings a risk of accidents and injuries. Due to the nature of your industry, liability risks may be concentrated within a single day or week, so event organisers may choose to take out public liability insurance for specific conferences, festivals, shows, exhibitions or parties. Our events public liability insurance provides up to £10 million in cover for defence costs and compensation pay-outs if someone says they suffered injury or property damage at your event.
Property insurance
Organising events means you’ll likely need additional property for the circumstances, such as rented audio equipment for a festival, marketing boards for exhibitions and pop-up payment desks too. Whether this is owned or rented, event property insurance can step in to offset the financial impact if it’s lost, damaged or stolen at the event or in transit to it. This cover can be useful if you utilise very different equipment at events compared to in the office. It also provides cover for up to £50,000 in physical damage to the event venue.
These are just some of the types of business insurance for event and wedding organisers that we can offer. We can provide other specific types of cover and build them into a policy that’s tailored to the exact needs of your business.
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Insurance for your business
Professional indemnity insurance
The work of an event organiser involves coordinating several parties at any one time, so insurance to mitigate mistakes can provide welcome reassurance. Your client might claim their wellness event was ruined because your catering contractor didn’t deliver the agreed menu, resulting in attendee complaints. Professional indemnity cover can help with the financial implications of compensation claims such as this and also legal action if someone says you, or a contractor has made an error. We also cover breach of contract as standard with our tailored PI cover for your sector which may offer additional reassurance.
Public liability insurance
Professional event organisers work closely with people on a regular basis, so public liability insurance may be considered a key type of cover for this role. When you’re tasked with organising an inaugural charity fundraiser on a public field, the setup has to be carefully managed. Unfortunately, a dog walker falls over a stray flagpole and decides to start legal proceedings. Public liability cover can step in to assist with the cost of defending or settling claims of injury or damage to personal property.
Employers’ liability insurance
During busier periods in your event calendar, it’s impossible for you to manage the workload on your own. You decide to welcome assistance during this time to share tasks and ensure the smooth running of every conference, ball and tournament. When you do so, employers’ liability cover might become a legal requirement (external link). This helps to cover your business for compensation claims if a paid employee or volunteer becomes ill or injured in the context of their work.
Insurance for event organisers: FAQs
What insurance does an event organiser need?
As an event organiser, you’ll often find you need two types of insurance – business insurance for the everyday risks any company or self-employed professional might encounter, plus event insurance to cover specific problems that can surround events.
Business insurance can cover an event organiser for issues such as client complaints and risks to employees – for instance, if an assistant claims they’ve been injured at the office. It can’t, however, help if you need to cancel an event – for this, event organisers need specific event insurance.
Event insurance also helps to underwrite a range of risks that might become more pronounced during the events you organise. This might be the case if, for instance, you normally work in a small office with 10 employees but need to contract a 100-strong team of temporary staff for an exhibition.
How much does event management insurance cost?
Business insurance quotes with Hiscox start at just £8.40 a month* – how much your event management cover will cost depends on the cover you select and the policy limits you set.
For instance, a corporate wellness event manager may benefit from setting a larger limit of professional indemnity insurance. This could safeguard against a client claiming a massage therapist you hired made a mistake, which also cost them business.
Discover more about what to consider when looking how much business insurance will cost you as an event planner.
*Figures based on an average of all business insurance policies sold to at least 10% of our customer base between January 2023 and January 2024.
Does event planner insurance insure the event too?
Business insurance for event and wedding planners can cover a range of problems which may surface at an event, such as guest injuries.
Event insurance is a separate policy, however – it’s designed to underwrite specific conferences, exhibitions, sporting or charity events.
This product covers risks such as cancellation, the non-appearance of a key person or speaker and can come with a range of add-ons for international travel. Some professional event planners choose to purchase this in addition to their standard business insurance.
Do I need multiple event insurance?
You’re likely to oversee several events per year so you may benefit from event organiser insurance. However, you might also want multiple event insurance which is separate to a tailored planner policy.
Your event management cover can be built to include protection against public liability risks, however, there are also other potential stumbling blocks when running a number of events.
This includes the increased possibility of multiple cancellations, adverse weather or even unexpected venue closures.
Hiscox is part of the leading event industry associations, including the AEO, ABPCO, EVCOM and ICCA – that’s why we provide flexible insurance options to meet your needs.
Related articles and guides
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