LONDON—Sound risk management plays a vital role in ensuring that the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games are a success, speakers at a Chartered Insurance Institute seminar said last week.

The “multiplicity of events and venues” involved in Olympic Games poses a huge challenge to event organizers and the insurance industry, said Jonathan Clark, technical director at Cunningham Lindsey U.K., a London-based loss adjuster and claims management firm.

Many of the venues slated for use at the games will be, or have been, used to stage major events for their respective sports, so they will be “stress tested” before the 2012 Games, he said at the London seminar.

But holding many events simultaneously at venues across the United Kingdom during the 2012 Summer Olympic Games adds to the challenge, and the venues may have some risks in common, Mr. Clark said.

One risk that needs to be considered is that of employers liability, he said.

There will be many workers involved in staging the games, many of them volunteers, he said. The staff needs adequate training to minimize the risks and potential liability exposures to employers.

The games' organizers also must analyze potential risks to participants and different attitudes that athletes may have about risks, Mr. Clark said. For example, if a cyclist fell off, would he or she be more likely to get back on and continue riding or to sue the designer of the track?

There needs to be a balanced approach to risk, he said. For example, an overly safe course likely would not make for an interesting equestrian competition, he said.

One area that carries huge potential risks is visitors, Mr. Clark said.

There will be a vast number of people coming to London, many of whom do not speak English as their first language, he said. Safety advice given to visitors, therefore, must be very clear, he said.

In addition, those involved in organizing the games need to be aware of visitors' differing cultural expectations, Mr. Clark said. Organizers should examine various scenarios based on different jurisdictions and their potential for litigation to have a better idea of what to expect, he said.

There are potential liabilities associated with the large-scale catering needed for the Olympics, such as the risk of food poisoning, Mr. Clark said.

Despite potential risks associated with staging the Olympic Games, there is little likelihood that the event will be postponed or canceled, even if there is a fairly large-scale event, said Paul Maynard, chief placement officer for Willis U.K. & Ireland Ltd., a unit of Willis Group Holdings P.L.C.

“There will be a huge drive to make sure the Olympics goes ahead,” he said, pointing out that the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 and Atlanta in 1996 continued despite terrorist events.

Clearly, there is a history of Olympic Games being targets of terrorist activity, said Steve Atkins, chief executive of Pool Reinsurance Co. Ltd., the United Kingdom's privately run, government-backed terrorism reinsurance pool. “Obviously, any major event is attractive to terrorists.”

But the Olympic organizers and government authorities will view the risk in the wider context, he said. Large events take place in the United Kingdom all the time and authorities have succeeded in thwarting many planned attacks, he said.

Terrorism is a difficult risk for underwriters to forecast as it is a low-frequency but high-severity risk, Mr. Atkins said.

This is why government-backed insurance and reinsurance arrangements have become more prevalent in recent years, he said.

Graham Newman, European product marketing manager at FINEOS Corp. Ltd., also took part in the seminar, which was chaired by Adrian Ballardie, chairman of the CII's London Market Faculty.