Conference & Convention Insurance: Cost & Quotes From $7/month

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Conventions and conferences hold value for all in attendance. These represent limitless opportunities to make friends, connections and to get in contact with people that would be interested in collaborative efforts.

Unfortunately, while these conferences and conventions hold great value, they also carry significant risks. 

That's where conference and convention insurance comes in. This is a specialty events insurance for conventions and conferences. Dubbed as seminar insurance by some of the providers, this insurance policy helps protect you and your assets from lawsuits, property damage, and out-of-pocket expenses. 

The specialized commercial insurance for seminars, conventions, and conferences doesn’t function on its own but is actually composed of many types of business insurance products, such as general liability insurance, cancellation insurance, etc., that ensure you mitigate the impact of  specific risks. Note that while conference event insurance is not a legal requirement, most venues will require it if you plan to rent or lease their space 

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Why Do You Need Convention and Conference Insurance?

Some of the reasons why you need convention and conference insurance are equipment damage, breakdown, and theft; participant injuries, and volunteer injuries. 

Regardless of the conference or convention size, you will need event and production equipment. Using these at your event site involves several hazards ranging from :

• Theft

• Damage

• Breakdown 

Besides, seeing as there will be a crowd at the conference, there will be some crowd management challenges you'll have to deal with. Imagine a scenario where, unfortunately, there is crowd-pushing as you didn't plan for enough stewards to be at hand to prevent it.  In such a situation, someone could get injured and sue you to get compensation. 

Further, consider a scenario where staff and volunteers get hurt from lifting heavy equipment, marshaling busy roads, or dealing with the attendees. And as such, volunteers can sue you for negligence. 

Liability Insurance for Conventions, Conferences, and Seminars 

Regardless of how thoroughly you plan, accidents will inevitably happen and having general liability insurance for conventions, conferences, and seminars provides you with sufficient cover. 

General liability insurance for conventions, conferences and seminars to cover the costs associated with defending you against claims arising from personal injury, death, or property damage of your convention’s participants, visitors, vendors, and other individuals considered as third parties. Here are some concrete examples where you’ll find this policy useful:

• Slip and fall accidents due to poor floor plan resulting in third party property damage or injury

• Stampede or crowd unrest resulting in third party property damage or injuries

• Equipment defects resulting in property damage or personal injury to the third party using it 

• Explosions and other related incidents that result in third party property damage or personal injury

Understand that there are some exclusions to general liability insurance. The policy doesn’t cover:

• Personal injury claims or property damage claims filed by employees

• Any injuries or property damage sustained by a third party who was over-served with alcohol

• Food poisoning 

• Defective products were given to the participants of the conference or convention 

The majority of carriers underwrite general liability insurance for conventions, seminars, and conferences, which has a $1 million-$2 million per occurrence limit and $2 million aggregate limit. But note that you can find some selling a general liability policy having $5 million-$10 million per occurrence limit and $10 million aggregate limit. 

Once you get general liability in place, the policy handles the legal costs associated with defending you and any other payments that you will be bound to pay in the future. For example in personal injury claims, general liability insurance will cover or reimburse the claimant’s medical expenses. And in property damage claims, the policy will refund the value of the claimant’s damaged property. 

General liability insurance for conventions, conferences, and seminars can be customized by adding optional policies. Such optional policies are:

• Rented premises liability coverage-Rented premises liability coverage will refund the owner if the venue you rented or leased is damaged by a fire 

• Advertising injury coverage- Advertising injury coverage takes care of administrative costs, attorney fees, and settlements if a third party sues your convention, seminar, or conference for slander, libel, and copyright infringement 

• Products and completed operations coverage-Covers costs if a third party files a personal injury claim or property damage claim after your conference, seminar, or conference was held

• Volunteer accident medical coverage-Volunteer accident medical coverage allows general liability insurance to cover the medical treatment of volunteers who sustained injuries due to a work-related accident 

Liquor Liability Insurance for Conventions and Conferences 

Consider adding a liquor liability policy to your convention and conference insurance. This is useful if liquor is served or sold. The function of liquor liability insurance is to:

• Pay for the medical treatment of the third party who sustained injuries after getting intoxicated by alcohol that was served or sold in your conference or convention 

• Reimburse the third party who sustained property damage after getting drunk by the alcohol that was served or sold in your conference or convention 

Liquor liability insurance for conferences and conventions has a $300,000-$1 million limit.  You can purchase the policy in two ways-buy it as a stand-alone policy or find a carrier that offers it as an optional policy to general liability insurance. 

Fireworks Liability Insurance for Conventions and Conferences 

Will your conference or convention have a fireworks display? If this is the case, you must know that fireworks are excluded in the terms of your general liability policy. That’s why you need another type of convention and conference insurance - fireworks liability insurance. 

Fireworks liability insurance covers medical expenses, reimbursements, and legal defense costs if the fireworks display of your convention or conference causes injuries, fires, or property damage. Having this insurance is very important, especially since it’s estimated that 9 people died and 11,500 were injured by fireworks in 2021. Another thing, depending on where the conference or venue is, fireworks liability insurance will be required for you to hold a fireworks display legally. 

Fireworks liability insurance has a $500,000-$1 million per accident limit. Its aggregate limit is set at $1 million-$2 million. Similar to liquor liability insurance, fireworks liability insurance can be purchased as an add-on to general liability insurance. 

Contingent Ride Liability Insurance for Conventions and Conferences 

Sometimes, conventions and conferences take participants in tours. If you plan to do the same, consider adding contingent ride liability policy to your conference and convention insurance. Contingent ride liability insurance kicks in when a participant sustains property damage or injuries during the tour. Any tours done on buses, boats, kayaks, bikes, submarines, etc. aren’t covered. 

Convention and Conference Umbrella Liability Insurance 

Sometimes, the limit of your general liability policy can’t fully cover the cost of a claim filed against your conference or convention. The only countermeasure for this is buying umbrella liability insurance.

When your general liability policy can’t completely shoulder the cost of a claim, umbrella liability insurance will kick in to pay for the excess. For example, if a third party files a $1 million property damage claim and your general liability policy only has $500,000, umbrella liability insurance provides another $500,000 so that you can fully cover the cost without spending personal funds. 

Commercial Auto Insurance for Conventions and Conferences 

If you use owned vehicles to transport and fetch participants of the convention or conference, then don’t forget to purchase commercial auto insurance. This is a policy that consists of:

• Auto liability coverage-Auto liability coverage will cover the resulting expenses if your commercial vehicle causes an accident while transporting a participant. It will cover the medical treatment of injured third parties or reimburse the loss of those who had their property damaged. Auto liability coverage also pays for attorney fees, administrative costs, and other legal expenses 

• Physical damage coverage-Physical damage coverage is available as a collision policy or comprehensive policy. Collision physical damage coverage will pay for parts repair or replacement if your convention or conference commercial vehicle sustained damage after crashing. On the other hand, comprehensive physical damage coverage will shoulder repair or replacement expenses if damage is sustained due to fire, theft, vandalism, and other covered perils 

• Medical payments coverage-Medical payments coverage will pay for the ambulance fees and emergency treatment of the driver and passengers who sustained injuries after your conference or convention vehicle got involved in an accident. 

• Personal injury protection-Personal injury protection covers the ambulance fees, emergency treatment, lost wages, and after-hospital visits of the driver or passengers who sustained injuries after your conference or convention vehicle caused an accident or got involved in an accident 

Note that commercial auto insurance is only useful if you’re using owned vehicles for the conference or convention.  And in case you’re hiring or borrowing vehicles, what you need to get is hired/non-owned auto insurance instead. Hired/non-owned auto insurance covers settlements and legal expenses if a borrowed/hired convention or conference vehicle causes an accident and injures third parties or damages their property. 

Rental Equipment Insurance for Conference and Conventions

Rental equipment insurance for conferences and conventions can be classified as theft coverage and equipment breakdown coverage. 

Theft coverage reimburses losses if rented convention or conference equipment such as tables, chairs, sound systems, and projectors sustain damage or become lost due to theft. 

Equipment breakdown coverage, on the other hand, reimburses losses if rented convention or conference equipment sustains damage or becomes lost due to vandalism, malicious mischief, fire, impact damage, mishandling, etc. 

So how much insurance money can you get from rental equipment insurance? Limits vary from carrier to carrier. And so, be sure to be clear about the details  before proceeding with the purchase of the policy. 

Convention Cancellation Insurance 

Having to cancel or postpone your convention, conference, or seminar for reasons beyond your control is probably one of your worst nightmares. Fortunately, you can decrease the risk of having to cancel the event due to problems that emerge that are simply out of your control. 

Convention cancellation insurance protects you from irrecoverable costs and expenses you might incur as a result of the cancellation of the convention, conference, or seminar. The cancellation policy reimburses you for said irrecoverable costs and expenses incurred. Further, it covers the loss of profit as a result of the unforeseeable abandonment, postponement, interruption, or cancellation of your event. The latter comes in handy when a guest speaker cancels as a result of illness or injury or if the venue is inaccessible due to closure or safety concerns. Further, suppose there are unforeseen adverse weather conditions. If you had to cancel or postpone the event, the cancellation insurance policy covers it. 

Depending on the provider you go with, they might cover any additional expenses that reduce a loss if cancellation is threatened or the parameters of the event are to be re-arranged. 

Conference Insurance Cost 

The conference insurance cost you end up paying is dependent on the size of the conference, convention, or seminar and particularly the number of participants. 

A typical conference insurance premium will likely be $150 for just the one-day coverage. However, expect premiums to reach $200 or more for a one day coverage if there are more than 200 participants.  

Always compare quotes online so that you get the best conference and convention insurance at the most reasonable price. Start by clicking the “Get Quotes” button on this page. 

To get a better estimate of your rates, look at this table that shows the pricing of the carriers that covers conferences, conventions, and seminars:

Also, we’ve made another table that shows how much insurance costs for conference and convention organizers.