The Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) has released the white paper “Mitigating Risk in Modern Meetings and Incentives,” drawing on findings from its 2016 Event Disruption Study. The report highlights that meeting planners now spend up to 25 percent of their time planning for potential disruptions and that nearly 40 percent expect the time and effort they put into planning for disruptions to increase in the next two years.

Disruptive incidents reported by meeting planners are happening with increasing frequency and include weather-related phenomena, wars and terrorism, business partners’ mistakes and clients’ lack of cooperation. The white paper explores strategies to mitigate these issues and how to prepare for and handle disruptions.

“The 2016 Event Disruption Study demonstrates that disruptions are very real part of doing business in the meeting and incentives industry,” says Melissa Van Dyke, IRF President. “With the white paper, we’ve highlighted the research and actionable insights that meeting planners and their partners can use to plan for and respond to disruptions.”

The IRF notes that more than 90 percent of planners say that their companies require contingency plans—57 percent for all events and 37 percent for some events—and that nearly 70 percent of planning companies provide guidelines or assistance for planning for disruption.

Both the white paper and the 2016 Event Disruption Study are available online.