If you’re planning a large-scale event one of the most daunting aspects is crowd control. After all it isn’t always easy to control thousands of party-happy revellers who are intent on having a good time. That said, that’s exactly what you have to do, especially if you want it to go without a hitch. Remember just a few ‘bad eggs’ can make things turn chaotic extremely fast so in order to avoid this from happening here’s what you need to take into consideration.
Know your audience demographic
If you’re running a large corporate event for a bunch of oil investors, then it’s going to be a completely different audience from say a bunch of music revellers attending a rock festival (well, hopefully anyway). Both groups will have differing preferences, different temperaments and clearly are going to be there for different reasons. Once you have an idea of the type of group in attendance, you can tailor your security accordingly.
Keep tight control of exit and entry points
This can be a tricky one as you don’t want uncontrolled entry where people are simply flooding in from all over the place, but at the same time you don’t want fewer entry and exit points that it causes major bottle-necks. It’s been proven in the past that when crowds at festivals are kept moving they’re far more tolerant of the circumstances and are content to queue. On the flip side when there is no sign of movement and lengthy bottle necks start to form particularly at entrance and exit points, this is when crowds can quickly turn from being relatively content to becoming stressed and this is when violence can escalate.
Organising staff
Clearly you’re going to need staff to carry out this major task and as such they need to be well-organised and well-drilled and that comes from you. Good communication is key and when trouble does arise your team can stamp it out quickly before it escalates.
Let the paying guests be your eyes and ears
Even though you might have fifty or sixty security staff working on this project they still might not be able to cover every aspect. For this reason encourage open communication between paying guests and the team. By reporting any suspicious behaviour it can be investigated and dealt with quickly.
Call in the experts
Finally, if crowd security is something you’ve had to deal with before and don’t feel comfortable about organising the whole thing yourself, then you might want to call upon the services of the professionals. Here at MA Services Group we specialise in crowd security and control at large scale events. We take care of every aspect from the planning to the staffing through to the event itself. Why not give yourself peace-of-mind by calling 03 9994 4107 and speak to the pros.
