In some destinations, competition for venues intensifies over fewer dependable dates. Photo Credit: AdobeStock/andreusK
Event planners expect climate change to play a significantly bigger role in how events are planned over the next few years.
As heat, heavy rainfall, and other weather-related disruptions become more frequent concerns, climate resilience is moving closer to the centre of planning, says Leilani Heaven, senior strategist at Advisory Services, a division of Performance Optimization, and US Sustainability Committee co-lead at BCD Meetings & Events.
New pressures on timelines, availability
Traditional planning windows are becoming less dependable, particularly for programmes with significant outdoor components, prompting planners to look more closely at seasonality, time of day and alternative ways to deliver an event if conditions change.
For clients, that can translate into greater competition for reliable dates, growing interest in shoulder-season programmes and a stronger preference for destinations and venues that can provide flexibility.
Catherine Chaulet, president and CEO at Global Partners DMC, says months that were once considered fallback options are increasingly becoming the first choice.
“Programmes that would have run in July across Southern Europe are moving to May or late September, and in tropical destinations, rainy seasons have become harder to predict year to year, which tightens the dependable window for a large outdoor gala or a beachfront awards dinner,” she says.
That is also changing how early planners and their partners need to secure venues. Venue holds are being made earlier, particularly where demand is concentrated around a smaller number of dependable dates.
Weather as risk
At the operational level, climate risk – the potential for negative impacts and financial losses associated with climate change – is adding another layer to decisions around venue infrastructure, transport, insurance, health and safety, supplier readiness and attendee communications.
“For planners, the question is no longer only whether a destination is attractive, accessible or commercially viable,” says Lorela Chia, founder and managing director at Gr8 Dreams. “It is whether the destination can protect continuity, delegate safety and confidence when [climate] conditions become less predictable.”
Chia says the implications extend across almost every layer of planning, including dates, venue selection, transport, insurance, outdoor programming, health and safety, supplier readiness, crisis communications and contingency design.
One event two ways
That flexibility is increasingly extending into event design itself. Chaulet says designers are creating indoor and outdoor versions of the same experience so programmes can be switched at short notice without fundamentally changing the delegate experience.
“Our partners often walk a venue twice for exactly that reason, once for the programme as designed and once for the programme as it would run in poor weather,” she says.
Beyond contingency
Planning teams are factoring in practical measures such as shade, hydration, cooling, drainage, transport arrangements and attendee communications.
The result is a shift from treating adverse weather primarily as a contingency to considering climate exposure much earlier in the planning process.
“It is no longer just a sustainability conversation,” says Heaven. “It is increasingly part of how we think about attendee safety, duty of care, destination choice, event design, and overall business continuity.”