Global Event Partners (GEP) announced in January that its U.S.-member destination management companies will now be held to new standards regarding risk coverage for their events. The standards were unanimously approved by GEP's members at the organization's annual Best Practices meeting in November in Dallas.Among the standards that GEP partners must follow, effective immediately, are maintaining current certificates of insurance of $1 million in liability for all key suppliers, conducting at least one annual meeting with key suppliers to reiterate safety expectations and review insurance and vendor agreements, and requiring key suppliers to name the participating GEP-member DMC involved in their events as additionally insured.For meeting planners, this comes as good news, as it eases their risk management load when planning events. "We are just coming out of the gate with this but have already received a much better response than I anticipated," said Chris White, GEP's CEO. "But this is also a long-term effort, and we will always be striving to go above and beyond what most DMCs do regarding this subject. We want to make our clients comfortable about it, because we all have had firsthand experiences with things that haven't gone so well, and it is important for clients to know that this time around they are covered."According to White, the move toward risk management standards came about from one member DMC's experience in dealing with an accident during a group event. "Because the DMC had really buttoned up its risk management priorities beforehand, it was absolved from responsibility. Afterward, that member DMC offered its co-GEP members the opportunity to look at the efforts it took in advance of the accident, and suggested a standard be made throughout the organization," said White. "So this wasn't a top-down regulationit came from within the organization, with one member DMC looking out for the others. The attitude was 'let's all do this.'"GEP is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Based in Washington, DC, it comprises 65 destination management companies worldwide.Originally published February 11, 2008