Although serving alcohol is a widely accepted part of the culture surrounding meetings and events in the insurance and financial services sector, it involves certain risk. Use this checklist to help keep the consumption of alcohol a pleasant social aspect of your events — and not a recipe for disaster.

Checklist/

Planning for the Event

• Know your attendees. If the event is for clients from outside your company, for example, they may be less inhibited when it comes to consuming alcohol. If it's an internal event, attendees will tend be on their best behavior in front of supervisors. If attendees are invited to bring guests, having their spouse or significant other with them may decrease the likelihood that they will drink too much — and increase the probability they will arrive home safely.

• Cut 15 minutes off the total time announced in the agenda for cocktail parties. Chances are good that no one will notice. And it will save money as well as reduce alcohol consumption.

• Plan to have plenty of food — as well as nonalcoholic beverages — on hand, and avoid salty snacks. (They will cause people to drink more.)

• Plan for inebriation. Book hotel rooms in advance and arrange to have taxi service available for attendees who drink too much.

• For internal events, make sure employees are made aware of your company's substance abuse policies and how these policies apply to the company's corporate events. If your company doesn't have a substance abuse policy, this is the time to formulate one.

During the Event

• Provide attendees with drink tickets to avoid overconsumption.

• Serve only beer and wine.

• Close bars prior to the end of the event — and don't make any “last call” announcements.

• Prohibit staff from drinking on the job.

• Organize staff into teams to monitor the event and keep an eye on potential problem attendees.

• If it is an internal event, consider having attendees turn in their car keys as a condition of being served alcohol.

Liability Protection

• Every state prohibits service to anyone under the age of 21, but other alcohol service laws such as ”dram shop” and “social host” laws can vary by state. Make sure the venues and servers you use for your event are totally familiar with their state's laws.

• Make sure venues and servers are properly insured.

• Negotiate a contract that requires a venue or your caterer to comply with all alcohol service laws, such as not serving minors or any one who appears to be intoxicated. Then emphasize to the servers that they have an obligation not to overserve anyone.

• Include an indemnification clause that will protect your company from liability for any alcohol-related incident or problem.

• Provide special name badges to any attendee who is under the age of 21.

• Consider a contractual requirement that all alcohol servers complete liability training such as TIPS (Training for Intervention ProcedureS). This is mandated in some states.

• Don't use self-service. Always hire a bartender, even in hospitality suites.

• If you (or another company representative) observe anintoxicated attendee, you have assumed ownership of the problem and the potential liability associated with it. Make sure you have options available to keep that individual off the road.

• Have procedures and guidelines in place for dealing with an intoxicated attendee.

Sources: Arlene Sheff, CMP, senior meeting and event planner, Boeing Co., Seal Beach, Calif.; James Goldberg, principal, Goldberg & Associates PLLC, Washington, D.C.

More On/Meetingsnet.com

For more on liquor liability, visit http://meetingsnet.com and search for “Alcohol at Meetings.”